Kristen Hwang

The Desert Sun

A handful of students wearing anti-gay symbols on their school ID badges at Shadow Hills High School in Indio have sparked anger and worry among students and staff on campus, but administrators said they cannot ask the students to remove the symbols in the interest of protecting freedom of speech rights.

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The symbols are about two inches wide and show a rainbow pattern crossed out with a circle and a line. Students began wearing them about two weeks ago. One of the students also changed his Google Classroom profile picture to the anti-gay symbol. Photos that have been shared on Twitter and Facebook condemning the homophobic symbols have been reshared dozens of times.

"After consulting with district level personnel and our legal counsel, it was determined that these students do have the protected right to freedom of speech, just as students portraying rainbows in support of the LGBT would," an emailed statement sent to staff Wednesday by administrators said.

The email also said, however, that "If at any point students are interrupting class time to express their beliefs, they are to be sent to the discipline office with a referral for disruption. ... We all have a right to freedom of speech, but students also have a right to be educated without fear. This has always been our policy, and we will continue to enforce it."

But many students and staff on campus aren't happy with the district's rationale, saying the LGBTQ community on campus feels targeted. The same students who were distributing the anti-gay symbol on campus also placed one on the window of the Gay Straight Alliance coordinator's classroom, said Amy Oberman, an AP U.S. History teacher at Shadow Hills.

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"Yes, there is freedom of speech established by Tinker, but at least in my view, it's a hate crime because a group was targeted," Oberman said. "I'm Jewish, and if that had been a little swastika on my window, what's the difference?"

Tinker v. Des Moines was a 1969 Supreme Court case that ruled students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

But, Michelle Bachman, a senior at Shadow Hills and vice president of the Gay Straight Alliance, said she feels the anti-gay symbols "rise to the level of bullying and intimidation."

"This group of students was publicly displaying an intolerance and hate for the LGBT community when a large portion of our students at SHHS are part of the community or close to people a part of it as well," Bachman said on Twitter through a direct message conversation with The Desert Sun. "This is definitely hate speech, but legally, we can't do anything until these students start to physically harass us, which I believe is an injustice."

District administrators, however, said they are walking a "fine line" on this issue but believe they are doing the right thing.

"Sometimes people can be uncomfortable because of an opinion, but that doesn't mean it's bullying," said Laura Fisher, assistant superintendent of personnel services. "We truly spent hours discussing this."

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Site administrators performed an ID check on Feb. 16 and found three students wearing the anti-gay symbol. They also found three students wearing LGBTQ pride symbols, Fisher said. Photos online and teachers indicate there are up to a dozen students wearing the anti-gay symbols. The students who were wearing anti-gay symbols were taken into the office and told that bullying and harassment would not be tolerated, she said.

"We're ensuring that while their First Amendment rights are protected, it is just as important to protect other students from bullying, harassment and intimidation," Fisher said.

Schools have a responsibility to create a safe environment for students, including LGBTQ students, said Melissa Goodman, director of the LGBTQ Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, in a statement. But "speech and expressive conduct like wearing pins is protected by the First Amendment and other California laws that strongly protect student speech rights," the statement said.

However, speech rights are not always absolute.

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"Speech can cross the line into prohibited harassment," Goodman said. "Factors courts look at to determine whether speech crosses the line into unprotected harassment include, among other things, its severity, persistence, and whether it's directed at a particular student or group of students, especially if it is a group specifically protected from discrimination."

Oberman said that students have come to teachers and said that they do feel intimidated since the symbols began appearing around campus. One teacher on campus even had to discipline a student Friday for openly bullying a classmate about this issue in class, Oberman said.

"They are upset more has not been done. Yes, you can have your opinion, but when you target a group, you cross the line," she said.

Many on campus are calling for sensitivity training, said David Parsons, a Spanish and AP Literature teacher at Shadow Hills.

"It's not just dealing with the five or six kids. It's trying to change the culture to help the students feel emboldened to say to their classmates 'Hey, that's not OK. That's not appropriate,'" Parsons said. "Our students need education. They need the tools that will encourage them to speak out against this type of hate speech."

Parsons said an email to site administration asking for sensitivity training has gone unanswered. Fisher said the district would be happy to provide Shadow Hills with whatever assistance they need in regards to sensitivity training.

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Bachman, vice president of the Gay Straight Alliance, said that while she sees the incidents as a gateway to committing hate crimes against the LGBTQ community in the future, she does see some positives as well.

"Shadow Hills High School has been able to come together and try and educate those discriminating, and instead of having anti-gay stickers in our lanyards, we have made heart stickers with rainbows to display our support and love," Bachman said.

Kristen Hwang is the education reporter for The Desert Sun. Contact her at kristen.hwang@desertsun.com or on Twitter @khwangreports.