Education Week - May 17, 2023 - 11

to address safety concerns is likely a
helpful step, Jacobsen said.
She and her team at Michigan State
University have recently begun a
project researching conflict between
school boards and the community.
So far, it appears that although
tensions may initially flare because
of a specific issue-like pandemicera
masking requirements-and the
most volatile interactions may subside,
higher-than-average instances
of shouting, crying, and interruptions
linger and bleed into other subjects
that previously likely wouldn't have
gotten much, if any, attention.
" We have been somewhat saddened,
but maybe not surprised,
unfortunately, that this does seem
to be continuing, " Jacobsen said.
" So it doesn't really surprise me that
boards are saying, you know, 'We
need to keep some of these policies
in place.' "
Repairing relationships is key
Jacobsen agreed that additional
security measures may be necessary,
but so is taking steps to repair
relationships with the community,
even-and especially-the angriest
people.
One way to begin that process is by
creating space for people to " vent " to
board members and make them feel
truly heard, without interruption or
counterpoints. That can feel counterintuitive,
especially if the people
venting have been the ones to say or
do offensive things before.
But, oftentimes, people just want to
know they're understood, Jacobsen
and Henig said.
Along with steps to bolster physical
security, some boards have taken
steps to change public comment policies
by tightening time limits and
restricting the topics commenters
can address. Some have cautioned
against the move, saying it, too, can
erode the public's trust.
" We've seen some places have forums
that were very long and open
ended, but they let everybody who
attended say what they wanted to
say without being cut off, and it
helped people feel like, OK, they
are listening and responding, and
combatted that narrative that school
boards are always trying to shut
down opposition or critical feedback, "
Jacobsen said.
Jacobsen also encouraged more
proactive information sharing, especially
in communities that lack a robust
local news scene. School boards
should send routine messages to
families about their work and good
things happening in their school
community, fostering connectedness
and transparency, Jacobsen said.
Without a strong local news outlet,
there are fewer opportunities to highlight
those achievements and efforts,
she added.
" At a basic level, there's a disconnect
and people have forgotten
or lost sight of all the good things
schools do, " Jacobsen said. " The
more school boards are doing to
connect and inform about not only
what they're doing but what's happening
in schools, the more you can
bridge that gap. "
Their District Banned
'Let's Go Brandon!'
Shirts. Now Students
Are Suing
The Michigan students wore hoodies
with the coded message critical of
President Biden, which their district
says is inappropriate for school
By Mark Walsh
A school district's prohibition on
shirts and hoodies with the phrase
" Let's Go Brandon! " -a well-understood
message in opposition to President
Joe Biden-is the latest in a long
line of legal battles over student apparel.
But it is one that may provide
schools with some guidance in an
increasingly partisan age.
To the 1,700-student Tri County
Area school district in central Michigan,
and its lawyers, the coded
meaning of " Let's Go Brandon " is
the very problem with the clothing
worn by a handful of students. The
slogan originated at a 2021 NASCAR
race in Talladega, Ala., when
the crowd chanted " F--- Joe Biden "
as the race's winner, Brandon
Brown, was being interviewed on
TV, and a host remarked on what
she thought was being chanted:
" Let's go, Brandon! "
The slogan went viral on social
media and has been embraced by
many conservative critics of the
Democratic president.
" The district prohibits clothing or
styles of expression that are vulgar or
profane, " the district's lawyers said
in a letter to a group representing
students who were told they could
not wear apparel with the slogan.
" The commonly known meaning of
the slogan 'Let's Go Brandon' is intended
to ridicule the president with
profanity. "
The Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education, the Philadelphia-based
organization known for
its work on free speech issues on college
campuses, represents two students
in the lawsuit who were told
to remove their " Let's Go Brandon! "
apparel, which FIRE describes as an
" intentionally innocuous criticism "
of the president.
" Our schools train the next generation
to live in a country where their
neighbors and coworkers might not
think, pray, or vote the same way
they do, " FIRE says in its lawsuit on
behalf of the students, siblings identified
in court papers as D.A. and X.A.
and their mother.
" That pluralistic democracy is
made possible by the First Amendment,
which protects our right to
speak our minds without government
punishment " and bars " viewpoint
discrimination against public
school students, " says the suit, D.A.
v. Tri County Area Schools, filed in
federal district court in Grand Rapids,
Mich.
20 years ago, student T-shirts
criticized President George W. Bush
The appearance of anti-Biden
apparel in public schools is one apparent
outgrowth of a nation that is
deeply divided politically. But it is
hardly new for the nation's schools
to be drawn into national political
questions.
The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark
1969 decision in Tinker v.
Des Moines Independent Community
School District, which upheld
students' right to free speech as
long as school was not substantially
disrupted, was based on black
armbands that students wore in opposition
to the Vietnam War. That
in effect was a protest against the
policies of then-President Lyndon B.
Johnson, a Democrat.
Two decades ago, as the United
States was gearing up for the war
in Iraq, a Michigan high school
student wore a T-shirt to school
depicting an image of Republican
President George W. Bush with
the message, " International terrorist. "
School officials told the
student to turn the shirt inside out
and warned him of potential discipline
if he continued to wear it
to school.
The student sued, and a federal
district judge ruled that under Tinker,
the district likely could not show that
the shirt had caused a substantial
disruption.
" The courts have never declared
that the school yard is an inappropriate
place for political debate, "
the judge wrote in 2003 in Barber
v. Dearborn Public Schools. " In fact,
as the Tinker court and other courts
have emphasized, students benefit
when school officials provide an environment
where they can openly
express their diverging viewpoints
and when they learn to tolerate the
opinions of others. "
A year later, a Vermont 7th grader
took aim at Bush with a more provocative
shirt, one labeling the
president the " Chicken Hawkin-Chief "
with images of cocaine
and a martini glass. School officials
asked him to change shirts or at
least tape over the drug and alcohol
images.
When the Vermont student sued,
he lost in federal district court, which
held that the shirt fell under the Supreme
Court's 1986 decision in Bethel
School District v. Fraser, which upheld
the discipline of a student who had
delivered a sexual innuendo-filled
speech before an assembly. The high
court ruling gave schools greater leeway
to regulate vulgar, lewd, indecent,
or " plainly offensive " student
speech.
But the Vermont 7th grader who
wore the anti-Bush shirt won in the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd
Circuit, in New York City. A panel
of that court that included thenCircuit
Judge Sonia Sotomayor
ruled in Guiles v. Marineau in 2006
that Fraser did not govern the case
because the cocaine and martini
images were not vulgar or plainly
offensive.
" The pictures are an important
part of the political message [the student]
wished to convey, accentuating
the anti-drug (and anti-Bush) message, "
the appeals court said. " By
covering them defendants diluted
[the student's] message, blunting its
force and impact. "
No political speech allowed, one
administrator allegedly told student
In the current Michigan case,
the lawsuit says that in February
2022, D.A. wore his " Let's Go Brandon! "
hoodie to Tri County Middle
School, where the assistant principal
ordered him to remove it because
the slogan was the equivalent
of " the F-word. "
Around the same time, student
X.A., who was in middle school but
is a high school freshman this school
year, was pulled from class and sent
to the office for wearing his " Brandon "
shirt, with the same administrator
allegedly telling him that the
school does not allow students to
wear clothing with political speech.
The FIRE lawsuit alleges that the
school's actions are part of a pattern
in which Tri County schools allowed
students to wear other political
messages, including pro-LGBTQ+
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 >
EDUCATION WEEK | May 17, 2023 | www.edweek.org | 11
A person wears a " Let's Go
Brandon " hat before Georgia
Gov. Brian Kemp speaks
during a Get Out the Vote
Rally, on the eve of
gubernatorial and other
primaries in the state, on
May 23, 2022, in Kennesaw, Ga.
Brynn Anderson/AP
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