1st amendment vs. mandatory youth-indoctrination centers

[John Doe #N]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010626/od/tshirt_dc_1.html

Tuesday June 26 9:18 AM ET 

         Teen Sues Over Banned
         'Redneck' Shirt

         NEWARK (Reuters) - Tom Sypniewski thought his
         ``redneck'' t-shirt was funny, but school officials
         deemed it offensive, ordered him to remove it and are now being
sued for
         allegedly violating his free speech rights.

         Sypniewski, 19, wore the shirt, which listed comic Jeff
Foxworthy's ``Top 10
         Reasons You Might Be A Redneck Sports Fan,'' to Warren Hills
Regional
         High School on March 22 and was told to remove it. He refused
and was
         suspended for three days, losing an appeal to the Board of
Education in April.

         District school officials in Washington, a small town in rural
western New
         Jersey, said in a press release the shirt ''portrayed a message
of racial
         stereotyping'' and violated the dress code. It said the shirt
could have inflamed
         students, given the school's two-year history of racial
tensions.

         Sypniewski, who recently graduated, denied he is a racist or
that the shirt
         carried a racist message.

         ``I wore it because it's funny,'' Sypniewski told a news
conference outside
         U.S. District Court in Newark on Monday. ``To me a redneck is a
hunter, a
         fisherman, an outdoorsman. I consider myself a redneck and I'm
absolutely not
         a racist. What hurts me is the board accused me of trying to
spread a racist
         message with the shirt. I think they owe me an apology.''