Judge: Student can wear shirt calling Bush `terrorist'

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

©2003 Associated Press

URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/10/01/national2130EDT0841.DTL

(10-01) 18:30 PDT DETROIT (AP) --

A high school student has the right to wear a T-shirt to school with the face of President Bush and the words "International Terrorist" on the front, a federal judge ruled.

"There is no evidence that the T-shirt created any disturbance or disruption," U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan said in the ruling released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which sued the Dearborn school district on behalf of Bretton Barber.

An assistant principal had ordered Barber in February to conceal the anti-Bush message or go home. Dearborn High said it worried about inflaming passions at the suburban Detroit school, where a majority of students are Arab-American.

But, the judge said, "The record does not reveal any basis for (the assistant principal's) fear aside from his belief that the T-shirt conveyed an unpopular political message."

Attorneys for the school district declined to comment on the case. There was no answer at the district offices Wednesday evening.

"The court's decision reaffirms the principle that students don't give up their right to express opinions on matters of public importance once they enter school," Kary Moss, executive director of the state ACLU, said in a news release Wednesday.

Barber was 16 when he wore the shirt on a day he was scheduled to present a "compare and contrast" essay in English class. Barber had chosen to compare President Bush to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

At the time, Bretton said he wanted to express his anti-war position by wearing the shirt, which he ordered on the Internet.

©2003 Associated Press