http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v_des_moines
Quote:
The court's 7 to 2 decision held that the First Amendment applied to public schools, and that administrators would have to demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any specific regulation of speech in the classroom. The court observed, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." [1] Justice Abe Fortas wrote the majority opinion, holding that the speech regulation at issue in Tinker was "based upon an urgent wish to avoid the controversy which might result from the expression, even by the silent symbol of armbands, of opposition to this Nation's part in the conflagration in Vietnam." The Court held that in order for school officials to justify censoring speech, they "must be able to show that [their] action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint," allowing schools to forbid conduct that would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school."[2] The Court found that the actions of the Tinkers in wearing armbands did not cause disruption and held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.
This is what the schools use to stand on these days. Trust me, my school pulled that **** all the time. The court wanted a fair ruling, but they set a precedent saying that schools can decide if the student's "expression" is "disruptive", and if so, can ban it. At my school they had a hubbub with a bunch of goth kids going ridiculously overboard with black eyeliner, drawing lines down their faces and stuff. They tried to tell them to stop, and the little goths stood up to them, news cameras came, etc. Disruptive. They had to stop wearing the black eyeliner.
It's sad but let's face it, kids don't have hardly any of their constitutional rights guaranteed. If your job can tell you what you can and can't wear, why can't the school?
I do have to say that the tiny nose stud is benign, and that the school is making it look more like religious discrimination than anything. Piercings were okay at my school, but the goths couldn't draw on their emo tears. Honestly, though, in this day and age, a burqa would probably be one of the most disrupting pieces of attire in a lot of schools, unfortunately.