I don't think you're going to find a lot of people who think these parents were doing the right and proper thing, so debating its ethics are about as redundant and unnecessary as debating the merits of anti-semiticism, we're talking about rights.



Actually that is not how it is. Public schools do not get to make up rules about what people can or can't wear. The supreme court has ruled on this repeatedly. Neither public instituions or even private franchise have the right to ban things without question, many a lawsuit - quite a few of which have been successful - have challenged these sorts of things. Schools can limit certain rights in the name of security, disruption, etc. This isn't carte blanche, there are some pretty solid guidelines about it. It as to be reasonable and even-handed, or close to it, or the ACLU wil show up.


Bingo, it's a rule, and so long as it can't be shown to be applied in a discrimnatory fashion - banning an AC/DC concert shirt but letting someone else wear a 'Mozart Rules' short - as well as having at least some basis in reality, then by and large the school can do it. Banning eating on the second floor would be safe because they could easily rationalize it as a health issue, for instance. They be in serious trouble if the rule was instead "boys can eat in class, girls can't" or banning yawning.



Well, I appreciate how off-the-cuff remarks often get taken too seriously on account of a lack of verbal and tonal context. But even here, you're making a bad judgement. I'm a republican, I have no prob with wearing a "Canidate X for year Y" shirt, though I avoid doing so in most places because it is, well, disruptive. I also have no problem with someone wearing a shirt for the opposite candidate, but I'd be screaming holy heck if someone tried to get me to wear the other's guys shirt. It's the same as raising the flag on your lawn, perfectly legitimate expression of freedom, and making someone raise the flag on their lawn, which is basically the exact opposite of freedom and much worse then telling someone they can't raise a certain flag on their lawn. On the grand scale of oppression telling people 'no' on certain expressions is not as bad as making someone express themselves agianst their will and creed, and both are pretty f'd up.