DeSoto Parish Middle School Student Punished for Gay-Friendly T-Shirt Message

From our friends at ACLU of Louisiana:
Last week, student Dawn Henderson of DeSoto Middle School wore a shirt to school bearing the message “Some Kids are Gay. That's OK.” In return for her support of the gay community, the school's principal ordered her to change her shirt or go home, censoring her speech in violation of her legal rights.

The ACLU of Louisiana has sent a letter to the Principal, Keith Simmons, explaining that students have the First Amendment right to express their opinions, including on t-shirt slogans, as long as the school allows clothing with slogans. “Students do not give up their free speech rights at the schoolhouse gate,” said ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie R. Esman. “To allow students to express one kind of opinion but not another is the very definition of censorship, and it violates the Constitutional rights of students like Dawn Henderson, who may have views different from those of her school principal.”

DeSoto school officials claimed that the shirt slogan was “distracting,” although no incident of disruption was attributed to it. “Had there been a disruption because of Dawn's shirt slogan, those causing the trouble are the ones who would properly be subject to discipline,” said Esman. “To punish the speaker for how others react is to blame the victim, and forces people to restrict their speech only to what they think others may want to hear. This is not the way a free society engages in public debate.”

“Schools should encourage discussion of issues of public concern, and especially issues about which there may be conflicting opinions,” Esman continued. “Sending Dawn home for wearing a shirt with the word ‘gay’ on it not only trampled her right to freedom of expression, but also sent a destructive message to all students that there is something wrong with being gay or even saying the word 'gay.' A school is the best place to encourage young people to share opinions. It is not the place to violate the legal rights of students whose views might differ from those of school authorities.”

Mississippi Attorney Jailed For Not Reciting Pledge of Allegiance

On Wednesday, October 6, in Tupelo, Mississippi, Chancery Judge Talmadge Littlejohn jailed attorney Danny Lampley because Lampley declined to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to an article from the Associated Press, "When a Mississippi judge entered a courtroom and asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, an attorney with a reputation for fighting free speech battles stayed silent as everyone else recited the patriotic oath. The lawyer was jailed."

"Attorney Danny Lampley spent about five hours behind bars Wednesday before Judge Talmadge Littlejohn set him free so that the lawyer could work on another case. Lampley told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that he respected the judge but wasn't going to back down. 'I don't have to say it because I'm an American,' Lampley told the newspaper. The Supreme Court ruled nearly 70 years ago that schoolchildren couldn't be forced to say the pledge, a decision widely interpreted to mean no one could be required to recite the pledge.

The ACLU of Mississippi has condemned Judge Littlejohn’s action. “The right to be free from state-coerced oaths is fundamental constitutional protection," said Bear Atwood, Interim Legal Director for the ACLU of Mississippi. “A judge has no more right to order an attorney in his court to recite the pledge than a teacher does in a classroom."

The ACLU has been defending freedom of conscience and the First Amendment since 1920, and the ACLU of Mississippi office was founded in 1969.

Pictured in photo above: Danny Lampley.

Thirty San Antonio Social Justice Activists Come to New Orleans for Free Speech Fight

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center is a 24-year-old non-profit social justice and cultural arts organization in San Antonio, Texas. For the last three years, they have been fighting against an unjust ordinance in their city that requires organizers of street marches to pay up to tens of thousands of dollars for political marches and cultural processions in the public streets, effectively silencing protests and cutting off community access to the downtown streets.

The City of San Antonio requires some marching permit applicants to pay thousands of dollars for traffic control while waiving all costs for permit holders whose message is endorsed by City officials. In the next few weeks, the City of San Antonio will send the International Woman’s Day March Planning Committee a bill that the San Antonio Police Department has estimated will be somewhere between $1,500 and $7,500.

Here in New Orleans, we are familiar with these struggles, having faced similar post-Katrina attempts by the New Orleans Police Department to impose fines that would have made many Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs have to shut down their parades.

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit against the City of San Antonio on behalf of the San Antonio International Woman’s Day March Planning Committee and the San Antonio Free Speech Coalition. The lawsuit is scheduled for Oral Argument in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on this Tuesday, April 27th, at 1pm. Thirty San Antonio activists and community members have come to New Orleans by bus to meet with social justice activists here and build solidarity across our movements. They hope New Orleanians will join them for their day in court, as well as various other community events while they are here,

“It is good news that the Court set the case for oral argument, because the City opposed our oral argument request, and a case is set for oral argument only when the Court determines that the case presents substantial legal issues,” writes attorney Amy Kastely in a recent issue of La Voz de Esperanza. “Less than 12% of the cases filed with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals are set for oral argument,” continues Kastely.

On Monday, April 26th, the folks from Esperanza are planning to spend the day in solidarity visits with a wide range of local community organizations to learn about organizing going on in New Orleans. The agenda for the day has been coordinated by Viola Washington of New Orleans' Welfare Rights Organization.


On Monday night, the Esperanza Center invites you to join them for a get together and dinner at the Community Book Center, at 2523 Bayou Road, at 6pm. According to organizers, "We hope that this will be a chance to break bread together, to learn about and share stories about local community organizing work in San Antonio and New Orleans, and to get to know one another on a personal level. We will also be bringing some music and foods to represent the culture of San Antonio. We invite you to bring music, poetry, performance, etc. to share the stories and culture of the people of New Orleans."

You can read more about the case at www.esperanzacenter.org/freespeech.

The Community Book Center can be reached at 504-948-7323. To reach Esperanza, call Amanda Haas or Graciela Sanchez at (210) 228-0201 or (210) 667-5695.