Editor,
Katie Sierra, a 15-year-old sophomore at Sissonvile High School in West Virginia, was told by circuit judge James Stacy that she could not form an anarchy club or wear T-shirts opposing bombing of Afghanistan, according to the Nov. 2 Albuquerque Journal.
She argued that her right to freedom of speech was being denied. I agree with her.
In a 1969 case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that banning high school students from wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War was unconstitutional, absent a showing that wearing of the bands would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school." The case was Tinker versus Des Moines Independent School District.
Perhaps this may well be an example of the suppression of civil liberties predicted after the terrorist attack on the United States Sept. 11.
Sierra says that she will pursue the case. I wish her Godspeed.
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Donald L. Thompson
UNM community member
