B.W.A. v. Farmington R-7 Sch. Dist., 2007 WL 2323400 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 10, 2007)
A U.S. district court in Missouri has ruled that a school district did not violate a student’s free speech rights by prohibiting him from wearing a Confederate flag symbol in school. B.A., a student at Farmington High School (FHS), was involved in two incidents involving the flag. On the first, he wore a hat that had the flag and the words "C.S.A., Rebel Pride, 1861." School officials ordered him to put the hat in his backpack for the remainder of the day. On the second he wore a T-shirt and belt buckle with an image of the flag and the words "Dixie Classic." School officials ordered him to remove the belt buckle and turn the T-shirt inside out. When he refused this time, he was sent home. Shortly afterwards, B.A.’s parents withdrew him from school. Students R.S. and S.B. were involved in subsequent Confederate flag incidents in support of B.A. The three sued Farmington R-7 School District (FSD) for violating their free speech rights. The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing they were justified in prohibiting the Confederate flag because they had reason to believe that display of the symbol would cause material and substantial disruption to the operation of school. FSD’s dress code provides: "Dress that materially disrupts the educational environment will be prohibit." District officials also provided testimony regarding several prior racially related incidents, although none of these involved displays of the Confederate flag.
After reviewing the policy and the testimony, the court concluded that the district’s ban on the Confederate flag was constitutional. As an initial matter the court determined that because displaying the Confederate flag is not "patently offensive," the case was not governed by Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986), which allows school officials to restrict offensive speech even if disruption is not immediately likely. The court instead found that the case was governed by the part of Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969), that allows schools to restrict student speech where they reasonably forecast material and substantial disruption. Acknowledging that the issue of whether the First Amendment protects the right of students to wear the Confederate flag at school has not been addressed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD), the court noted that the Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits all have found that prior racial incidents provide school officials with "a sufficient basis to ban the Confederate flag’s display." The court also cited principles enunciated by other court that were relevant to the case, including: (1) the prior incident need not have occurred at school to be relevant; (2) a school may rely on past racial incidents that do not involve the Confederate flag specifically; and (3) subjective beliefs about the flag’s real meaning is largely irrelevant, as courts recognize that the flag is racially divisive. The court rejected the students’ argument that the incidents cited by FSD were insufficient to satisfy Tinker because investigations were inconclusive as to whether the incidents were racially motivated. This argument overstates Tinker’s requirements, the court concluded, because Tinker only requires that school officials "had reason to anticipate" a material and substantial disruption. The students’ interpretation would have the effect of preventing a school from regulating student attire unless it could conclusively demonstrate that an incident had occurred and all parties agreed the incident was race-related. Finally, the court rejected the students’ claim that the dress code was unconstitutional on its face, holding that because the code’s language tracked Tinker, there was no real danger it would compromise the rights of other students.
B.W.A. v. Farmington R-7 Sch. Dist., 2007 WL 2323400 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 10, 2007)