“Abortion is Homicide” Sweatshirt:

An administrator at Culpeper County High School pulled [14-year-old Ellen Sonifrank] out of her second block class [on Sept. 27] and took her to see Principal Eric Porter. The principal asked the freshman to remove a sweatshirt displaying a message that upset one of her classmates.

The front of Ellen’s black, hooded sweatshirt reads, “Abortion is homicide.” The back reads, “You will not silence my message/You will not mock my God/You will stop killing my generation.”

After Dr. Porter expressed concern about the harshness of the word “homicide,” Ellen reluctantly complied with his request. . . . But the outspoken teen reconsidered the situation and wrote a letter that The Star-Exponent published Tuesday, Oct. 12, defending her right to display the message. . . .

The high school principal said he must weigh the students’ First Amendment right to free speech against the responsibility to provide an environment free of disruption.

“What is school for?” Dr. Porter reflected. “Is it where you come to express yourself, or where you come to gather as much information as you can to prepare yourself for the future?” . . .

If school officials continue to prohibit Ellen’s anti-abortion message, the teen said she [may file suit] . . . . “I’m going to take them to court for taking away my freedom of speech,” the teenager said. . . .

I appreciate Dr. Porter’s concern, but the Supreme Court’s answer (right or wrong) is pretty clear: Kids are allowed to express their political views, so long as they do it without profanity, until there’s concrete reason to think that the expression would cause material disruption. The benchmark is set by Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. School. Dist (1969), which upheld students’ rights to wear black armbands as an anti-Vietnam-War protest, even though the armbands apparently caused some distraction and upset.

Given that, there’d have to be some pretty significant evidence that this sweatshirt actually caused more disruption than that — for instance, fights or some such — or at least seems very likely to cause such disruption. I doubt that there is such evidence, and in any event the news story doesn’t mention any such evidence.

Thanks to Becky Dale for the pointer.