The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of the Dove World Outreach Center claiming the Alachua County school district’s policy against anti-Islamic T-shirts intrudes upon the wearers’ freedom of speech.
The shirts, which read “Islam is of the devil,” raised controversy when students were sent home from local elementary and middle schools for wearing them.
The church’s families said the shirts are protected by the Constitution under the First Amendment as religious expression.
Alachua County School District spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said the district will stand by its decision to enforce the dress code and prevent students from wearing items that are “disruptive to the learning environment and offensive to students.”
But according to ACLU of Florida executive director Howard Simon, the messages are protected under the First Amendment, which the Supreme Court has done a good job of outlining in terms of public schools.
“The shirts’ message isn’t about sex or drugs,” he said. “It’s about [the students’] views on politics, religion and history.”
Simon said the district’s decision to forbid the students from wearing the shirts crosses a line that shouldn’t be set by the school system, which is allowed to forbid certain clothing based on its offensiveness.
He said if every school restricted freedom of speech based on offending others, the freedom wouldn’t exist.
Simon said the students were not sent home from school the first day they wore the shirts because there was no disruption, but the schools later decided to forbid the shirts because of their message.
While the shirts’ message is distressing, Simon said, their appearance should have sparked school-wide discussions about religion and politics, being used as a learning tool.
“Rather than restricting speech,” he said, “it should have opened the door to more speech.”
A spokesperson from the DWOC declined to comment on the case but referred to a statement from the Rev. Terry Jones, the church’s senior pastor.
“What we are doing is what every church should be doing,” part of the statement from Jones reads, “but the churches in America and in Gainesville have become cowardly. The church’s job is to stand up and speak out on issues…and warn against false religions like Islam that masquerades itself as a religion of peace. Their desire is to destroy America, Israel and western civilization and to institute Islamic law.”
