Melanie Balakit

mbalakit@tennessean.com

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has settled a free speech lawsuit with Giles County school officials, calling the settlement a "victory for free speech," according to a news release.

The ACLU-TN filed the lawsuit in November against the school district's superintendent, school board and a high school principal after a student was prohibited from wearing a pro-LGBT T-shirt to school.

The T-shirt read "Some People Are Gay, Get Over It." Prohibition of the T-shirt violated students' free speech rights, according to the lawsuit.

Contrary to Giles County school officials, a United States district judge upheld students' rights to wear pro-LGBT apparel to school.

A temporary injunction written by United States District Judge Kevin Sharp in December said students are allowed to wear pro-LGBT apparel to school as long as it does not disrupt the school environment.

The injunction also said Giles County school employees cannot prohibit students from wearing apparel "bearing the rainbow symbol or other symbols and phrases associated with LGBT rights."

Sharp later wrote a preliminary injunction again defending a student's right to wear pro-LGBT apparel to school.

The student's T-shirt, though political in nature, did not disrupt the school environment, according to the injunction.

"Student expression on LGBT issues is speech on a purely political topic, which falls clearly within the ambit of the First Amendment's protection," the preliminary injunction states.

The lawsuit settlement comes after the Giles County school board approved a new dress code in June.

The new dress code prohibits students from wearing apparel with writing on it, unless it is a school-approved T-shirt or trademark logo.

The dress code change was unrelated to the lawsuit, said Giles County Director of Schools Philip Wright.

"We really didn't have a very clear dress code policy," Wright said. "It basically stated the student could wear anything as long it wasn't offensive.

"The one thing that the lawsuit has brought to light to us is that we had several board policies that we needed to update," Wright said. "It's just one of those things we needed updated," he said of the dress code.

Wright added: "It's been accepted and passed by the board. We're moving forward."

"The court made a pretty strong statement that schools can't single out students based on their speech," said Thomas H. Castelli, ACLU-TN legal director. "I hope this will help other students in the future who are also speaking out on matters of public concern, whether that be LGBT rights or any other issue, without being reprimanded."

Pro-LGBT apparel OK, temporary injunction says

ACLU sues Giles school officials for banning pro-LGBT shirt

T-shirt incident

Richland High School senior Rebecca Young wore the shirt on the first day of school in August 2015. The school's principal, Micah Landers, publicly reprimanded Young for wearing the T-shirt, according to court documents. Landers said Young could not wear the T-shirt to school because it made her a target for bullying and provoked other students, the lawsuit says.

In a phone call with Young's mother, Wright said he supported Landers' action. Wright said any clothing expressing support for the LGBT community, including a rainbow symbol, violated the school's dress code, the lawsuit says.

In this case, the only disruption came from when Landers addressed Young in the cafeteria, according to the injunction.

Young graduated from high school earlier this year.

Reach Melanie Balakit at 615-926-1638 and on Twitter @MelanieBalakit.