Constitutional Rights Issue at Forks High School

Posted on 10. Nov, 2010 by Amanda31 in News

As the home of The Twilight Saga, Forks, Washington, holds a special place in our hearts. We’ve covered news coming out of the town various times over the years, mostly about its destination as a tourist attraction or news on the demolition of the high school building.

Now another story has been brought to our attention by TwilightMOMS reader and Forks resident Staci (who sent us the picture above) involving the suspension of Forks High School students who wore t-shirts with the band name Sex Pistols to school on Tuesday.

According to an article by the Peninsula Daily News, a student was sent home on Monday for wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt. In protest, a group of students passed out Sex Pistols t-shirts on Tuesday to students before class started. The were suspended for causing an “uproar” and because of “the nature of what was on the shirts.” It’s unclear how many students were suspended – students say 25, while the superintendent estimates 10-12. Nine of those students then staged a protest in front of the school with signs saying “Honk to save your constitutional rights.”

While the students are claiming it was their constitutional right to wear the shirts to school (based on the Tinker v. Des Moines US Supreme Court case), the superintendent is claiming the suspensions were more due to the disruption the students caused before class as opposed to the shirts themselves (although clothing with sexual references are prohibited by the student handbook).

You can read the full article at the Peninsula Daily News here. The article is getting tons of pick up in Washington state media outlets, as well as additional coverage on Seattle PI’s blog and Seattle Weekly’s blog. It’s certainly an interesting discussion on student rights and the constitution. But it also leaves us wondering if Edward has any Sex Pistols in his extensive CD collection…