The court of appeals for the 2nd circuit ruled in favor of a student who wore a t-shirt calling President Bush the "Chicken Hawk in Chief" and including pictures of Bush with lines of cocaine on a mirror and a martini in his hand. After a complaint from another student, the school told the student he had to cover up parts of the shirt. He filed suit and the district court ruled that the school had violated his first amendment rights, but that they could still censor parts of the shirt. The appeals court overturned that decision and ruled in the student's favor.
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Religion enters Russian schools
I read the article you linked to in your post, Ed, and found this:
He said Guiles is a straight-A student and a talented trombonist with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, which has performed at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.
Curious inclusion. Would the student's claim to free speech rights be somehow less compelling if he were getting Cs instead of As? If he was in the Gay/Straight Alliance club instead of the orchestra? If he played the tuba instead of the trombone? If the orchestra played the West Overton Tractor Pull and Talent Show instead of Carnegie Hall?
The notion that the legitimacy of a claim to rights is, somehow, strengthend or weakened by the character [very broadly defined] of the person making the claim is a dangerous, though apparently widespread, one. And that seems to be what's implied by the paragraph above.
I want this T-Shirt - is it available anywhere?
I believe the point of the inclusion is that the student was making a bold and purposeful protest, as opposed to simply trying to draw attention to himself and be disruptive. Either way both students (real and hypothetical) still deserve to have their rights respected, but the student making the purposeful protest probably should be given more attention than the student tring to simply cause trouble.
Bush and cocaine? I'm guessing it looked something like this.