Sisters told to remove anti-abortion T-shirts

Des Moines Register | April 30 2005

Two Des Moines Roosevelt High School students say their right to free expression was violated when they were directed this week to change their anti-abortion T-shirts that administrators said might have disrupted school.

Sisters Brittany and Tamera Chandler said they were threatened with suspension when they wore the T-shirts, which included a picture of a fetus above the words "Abortion Kills Kids," as part of Tuesday's "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day."

Roosevelt Principal Anita Micich said the sisters were not threatened with suspension. She said the students were called into the office after a teacher expressed concern about other students' reaction to the T-shirts.

"I was worried that students who were expressing themselves might become targets, or that it might become so disruptive we couldn't conduct classes," Micich said. "It was headed down that path."

Tamera Chandler, 18, said she agreed to put a sweat shirt on over her T-shirt. "I was upset because they violated my rights, but I didn't want any trouble because graduation's right around the corner," she said.

Her sister Brittany, 15, said she became argumentative when officials suggested she change or cover her T-shirt. She and her father, Tim Chandler, said they were both told by school officials that if Brittany didn't change, Tamera could be suspended, which would affect her graduation status.

The Chandlers bought the shirts at Kingsway/Eagle Vision Church in Des Moines, where they are youth group members. Fellow group member Marisela Sandoval said she wore the same shirt Tuesday to Hoover High School. "I just wore it like any other shirt, and no one said anything bad."

According to the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker vs. Des Moines, students do not "shed their constitutional rights . . . at the schoolhouse gate." That case included students of Roosevelt who wore black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War.

Micich said she was mindful of the Tinker case when she talked to the sisters.

Roosevelt officials frequently ask students to change their clothes, mostly because they are too skimpy, Micich said. However, she said she couldn't remember the last time a student was asked to change or cover clothing because of its message.

The Roosevelt handbook states that students who wear "such clothing that disrupts or interferes with the safe or orderly operation of the school or learning environment will also be asked to change such clothing."

Nationally, some of the approximately 15,000 others, mostly students, who participated in National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day were told to cover or change their shirts, said Erik Whittington, youth outreach coordinator for the American Life Alliance, which organized the day.

He said students who react in a disruptive way to the T-shirts - not the wearers - should be punished. "A shirt doesn't yell or punch anyone in the face, so who and what is disruptive here?"

The Chandler family is considering filing a lawsuit after contacting the Iowa Liberty and Justice Center, which takes on cases related to family and sanctity of life, attorney Chuck Hurley said.

"How the school district addresses the issue, whether cavalierly or genuinely, will affect the future handling of the case," Hurley said.

Members of the Chandler family, still upset about the issue Thursday, said they want an apology from school administrators.

"There was never an argument in class," Brittany Chandler said. "A lot of people said, 'We're glad you're standing up for your beliefs.' I want an apology and for my sister to graduate and to wear the shirt again, that's all."

Micich said she plans to talk with the family. And in an interview late Thursday afternoon, Micich said the sisters "absolutely" can wear the shirts again.

"If other students are upset, we'll talk to them," she said.

If the case were to proceed to court, whether school officials were truly concerned with disruption of the educational process or simply disagreed with the message would be examined, said Randall Bezanson, a University of Iowa law professor who has written books on free speech.

In the years since Tinker, other cases have "signaled a greater degree of deference by courts to the educational judgments of teachers, principals and school boards as long as they are acting out of a concern" about the educational environment, Bezanson said.

It's also important, however, that the conclusion of what will be disruptive be reasonable, he said.