Aurora school defends censure of student's T-shirt

Aurora officials say disruption, not politics, key

Alan Gathrightand John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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School officials said Tuesday that it was the disruption that an 11-year- old's anti-Barack Obama T-shirt sparked - not its political content - that got him suspended from school last week.

But the boy and his father, who designed a shirt that read "Obama - A terrorist's best friend," said the youngster's free speech rights were violated when Aurora school officials suspended him for three days. The father said he's considering a lawsuit.

Daxx Dalton was sent home from his sixth-grade classes at Aurora's Frontier School after he refused to either turn the shirt inside out or wear another shirt.

The student and his dad, Dann Dalton, contend school officials would not have disciplined the youngster if the T-shirt had skewered Obama's opponent, Republican John McCain.

"If I said 'McCain is a terrorist's best friend' it wouldn't have gotten me into trouble," the boy said outside the school Tuesday afternoon as he and his father waited to pick up his 10-year-old sister. Dalton returns to school today.

However, Aurora Superintendent of Schools John Barry said the sister also donned an anti-Obama T-shirt that she was allowed to wear because she caused no disruption during her classes. Her shirt had the word Obama with a bar through it and a pro-McCain slogan on the back.

"This student was not suspended because of a shirt," Barry said of the boy. "He was suspended because of an issue of disruption."

Barry said Aurora students wear hundreds of shirt designs, including some with political slogans, without any incident. However, that was not the case with Daxx Dalton's shirt.

"It was a problem when it started being disruptive," said Barry, who was at the school that day. "A number of kids came to a number of teachers expressing that they were upset. There was shouting and yelling."

The turmoil spilled over from the school yard to a math class, he said.

"When you have a math class, obviously you don't have political science debates," he said.

Barry said students also may have been sensitive to the word "terrorist" on that day, coming a week after the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The school's dress code prohibits dress or appearance that "cause or are likely to cause a material and substantial disruption to the educational process or school-related activities."

Dalton was suspended Thursday after wearing the red, white and blue-decorated T-shirt on a day when students were encouraged to wear the patriotic colors in honor of a Vietnam-era military veteran who won the Medal of Honor.

First Lt. Brian Thacker with the U.S. Army made stops at Aurora Frontier K-8 and Gateway High School.

Daxx Dalton said his father had the idea for the shirt and did most of the design.

The father, who calls himself a "proud conservative," said: "I'm full of all kinds of anti- Obama cliches" and acknowledged helping his son with a slogan so "he could easily capsulate it on a T-shirt."

Daxx Dalton said the anti- Obama slam was popular with his "Republican" buddies, who gave him a high-five and said: "sweet, dude."

But the younger Dalton also said an African-American classmate shouted that he was a racist on the playground.

"He said: 'You just don't want a black president,' " Dalton recounted.

"I agreed with that because that would be the only thing that made him shut up," Dalton said. "But I'm not racist.

"Yeah, it was a disruptive in the school, but not enough to get suspended," the boy added.

A New York civil liberties lawyer said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that a student can be suspended only if the message on his clothing or his conduct "could cause a risk of material disruption at the school."

"Students have a constitutional right to express their opinions about politics, and this T-shirt was not vulgar or anything other than a political statement," said E. Christopher Murray, who had handled several student free speech cases.

Dann Dalton is no newcomer to free-speech controversies.

The father took his two children in a stroller to a 2000 anti- abortion protest outside the Arapahoe County home of a doctor who provided abortions, according to a Rocky Mountain News story.

Neighbors in the normally quiet cul-de-sac at the time complained about weekly protests with abortion foes waving signs declaring "Don't Kill Kids" and calling the doctor "murderer."

Arapahoe County commissioners passed a law limiting demonstrations in residential neighborhoods - requiring protesters to keep moving and restricting the size of their signs.

Dann Dalton said the restrictions had only boosted the protest crowd.

"Hopefully we'll have Greyhound bus tours through the area before long," he said at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Recent freedom-of-speech cases in Colorado schools

* Erica Corder, in her valedictorian graduation speech in 2006 from Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument, encouraged her classmates to stand firm in expressing their beliefs. She also said, "He died for you on a cross over 2,000 years ago, yet was resurrected and is living today in heaven. His name is Jesus Christ." She sued her alma mater for forcing her to write an apology for her speech before she was permitted to have her diploma. The case was dismissed in June 2008, but Corder has vowed to appeal.

* Max Karson, assistant to the editor of the Campus Press, the University of Colorado's online student newspaper, caused an uproar on campus with a Feb. 18 column titled "If it's war the Asians want . . . It's war they'll get." Karson has maintained the column was meant as satire rather than a hate speech. The online publication suspended and restructured its opinion section after outcry from the university and community.

* David McSwane, editor of the Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University's student-run newspaper, wrote a September 2007 editorial that read: "Taser this . . . F--- Bush." in response to the Tasering of a University of Florida student who disrupted a forum with Sen. John Kerry. While the school's board of regents admonished McSwane for the editorial, he was able to keep his post until May 2008.

* Ward Churchill, former University of Colorado professor, gained national attention with an essay he wrote in response to the events of 9/11, calling victims "little Eichmanns." The controversy surrounding the essay led to allegations of academic fraud and questions about his claims of American Indian ancestry, and his eventual dismissal from the university.

* The 2006-07 Conifer High School yearbook caused parent outcry when it printed pictures of students engaging in underage drinking and illegal drug use. Yearbook adviser Amy McTague told parents she allowed the content because it was their First Amendment right to express themselves, but the school did offer to give refunds or alter the book for students or parents objecting to it.

Max Karson's title and university were listed incorrectly in a previous version of this story.

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Comments

September 24, 2008

5:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

Mike_In_Hartsel writes:

"A number of kids came to a number of teachers expressing that they were upset. There was shouting and yelling."

So an expression of opinion is allowed only if no one else disagrees? Doesn't that undermine freedom of expression?
September 24, 2008

9:07 a.m.

Suggest removal

sheepherder writes:

No Mike, thats the liberal agenda. Everyone must think alike, or get a label such as racist or bigot attached to them.
September 24, 2008

11:43 a.m.

Suggest removal

303Centennial writes:

1st Amendment folks! Everyone is protected. The liberal educators with their liberal administrators didn't like the statement which is protected under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. In turn, the liberal school administrators stripped this child of his right to an education and his right to freedom of speech. The shirt was not inciting riots or violence....It simply made a constitutionally protected right. Just like the liberals to try and re-write the constitution to meet their agendas.
September 24, 2008

12:37 p.m.

Suggest removal

timothyc writes:

Gee, when I was in school, we couldn't wear t-shirts, period, nothing with logos, no shorts, we had to dress appropriately. What's wrong with expecting parents to send their kids to school dressed to learn, not dressed to cause controversy to upset the learning process? Aren't schools primary responsibilty to educate the kids, not to be a fashion show. Get real, people.
September 24, 2008

12:51 p.m.

Suggest removal

LoFat writes:

I gather from the story that the pro-Obama crowd created the disruption because of the t-shirt. Maybe the school officials suspended the wrong people. Seems to me that the liberal-leaning students were at fault in attempting to deprive Daxx of his first amendment rights, thereby creating the disturbance.

Hurrah, sheepherder, you are exactly right. Racist, bigot homophobe, are just some of the words liberals use in their attempts to silence any dissenting opinions of their agendas.
September 24, 2008

4:25 p.m.

Suggest removal

ColdShot writes:

Not a free speech issue! Schools are supposed to educate children! Not be a place for a parent to use a child as a political pawn! I would suggest a policy for any teacher pushing their political agenda on a child in the classroom should also be expelled. Permanently!!

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