Artifact 4
Artifact 4
Artifact 4
Berenice Perez
In the Northeastern United States, a large high school began a school policy that banned
the wearing of anything related to gang symbols like jewelry, emblems, earrings, and athletic
caps. The school began this new policy because of the gang activities that were frequent around
the school. A high school student, Bill Foster, wore an earring to school as a way to express
himself. He believed the earring was a statement to attract young ladies. Bill Foster was not
involved with any gang activities and was suspended for the earring. As a result, Bill Foster filed
a lawsuit.
The first court case that supports Bill’s case regarding his freedom of expression being
violated is Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969). This case discussed the
freedom of expression of a couple of students in junior high school using an armband. This
relates to the case because it is also a form of a symbol like the Northeastern high school
described as banned. Three students in Junior high, John Tinker, Christopher Eckhardt, and
John's sister, Mary beth tinker wore black wristbands to school in December 1965 to protest the
war in Vietnam. The school staff told the students to take the wristbands off but when they
refused to do so, they were then suspended. As a result, their parents then filed a lawsuit against
the school district saying the schools violated the student's first amendment of the right of
freedom of speech. This act correlates to expressing yourself. The supreme court ruled that
students had the right to free speech or expression, the court took the students' side. This helps
Bill Foster with his case because wearing wristbands or wearing an earring both help express
yourself whether it is a protest or the style because all students have the right to express to a
certain point.
Artifact #4 3
The second court case that helps Bill Foster support his side of having his freedom of
expression rights violated by the school is Guiles attended Williamstown Middle School as a
seventh-grader. He wore a shirt that had an anti-war rally. The shirt was George Washington
with the writing “ Chicken Hawk In Chief”. He had the body of a chicken. There were drugs and
a razor blade. All the expressions on the shirt were of disagreement with the president's policies.
He wore the shirt to school and even though it stood out there were really no disruptions
regarding it until one student complained about it. The other student did not agree with the
political statement but a teacher told him Guiles shirt was protected under the political speech
amendment. A parent then saw the shirt and also felt disturbed from the content on the shirt and
said the drugs and blade were violating the policy. The student was told to cover the disturbing
images with tape which he did. The student then made a lawsuit to the federal district in which
the court ruled that the school violated the student's right to free speech by asking the student to
censor the content on the shirt. Bill had an earring in which was not disturbing anyone, no one
felt disturbed nor offended for another student wearing an earring to express themselves. The
student was not using the earring as a form of gang relation but as expression.
The first case that supports that the school has the right to suspend a student from school
for wearing an earring because it violates the school policy is Boroff v. Van Wert City Board Of
Education. Boroff was a senior at Van Wert High school and August 29, 1997, went to school
wearing a shirt of “ Marilyn Manson” and three faced Jesus with writing “ see no truth, hear no
truth” everything on the shirt was very visible. The school's principal aide Froelich told the
student to either take it off, turn it inside out, or going home to change since the school had a
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dress code policy. Instead, the student left school so it was marked truant. Boroff and his mother
went to the school and was again told he was not allowed to wear those shirts but for the
following 4 days he continued to wear the shirts but was constantly told he was violating the
school policy. On September 16, 1997, Boroff’s mother filed a lawsuit against the school saying
the school violated the right to his first amendment but the court denied it. The school had a set
policy and was warned multiple times in which his rights were not violated. This ties in which
the school because a new policy was placed to protect students from gang-related as well as the
policy for Van Wert High school to protect students from offensive illustrations, drugs, alcohol
The second case that helps the school appeal that they did not violate the student's right to
eighth-grade student attending Davenport community school. In February 1990 Brianna got a
tattoo on her thumb and index finger of a cross without the intention of symbolizing religion or
gang affiliation, but instead, it was a self-expression symbol according to her. She was an
excellent student and later attended West High school but gang activity kept rising and gang
members threatened other students with rival gang signals or just intimated other no gang-related
students. The superintendent at school sent out letters explaining that any gang-related displays
from students would result in suspension or have a recommendation for expulsion. Stephenson
was told she would have to remove her tattoo or would be suspended, and since furth
investigation summed up that her cross was associated with a gang. She began the process for
tattoo removal and would continue covering her tattoo while attending school during treatments.
September 25 was the last day for her extension on removing the tattoo, the tattoo was removed
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but left a scar. Stephenson's mother filed a lawsuit after that. The court ruled that Stephenson's
tattoo did not fall under the first amendment therefore there was no violation. The school's
responsibility is to keep students safe and choosing to stop gang affiliation helps protect students
just like the case of Bill Foster. The tattoo was proven to be gang affiliated as well as the earring
on Bill Foster was described as gang affiliated and breaking the school policy.
In the case of Bill foster v. Northeastern high school, the court will rule as no violation
made by the school. The expression of self was not violated because the school policy indicated
the banner of certain items and gang symbols. The earring was described as such a thing there for
by wearing it, it is violating the school policy. The school is responsible for all student's safety so
controlling the gang affiliation or any is the right thing to do because if it were not done, that
would be negligence. The school is in the right to place policies for all students' safety. Based on
the cases supporting the Northeastern high school all schools placed policies and described that
the expression of oneself by a symbol or by the object under a school policy does not fall under
Reference
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20080915mo
nday.html
https://www.leagle.com/decision/2000685220f3d4651642
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-8th-circuit/1097522.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1101375.html