Sign in thumbnail: girls clothing in schools is more regulated then guns

The right to bear arms is a constitutionally-guaranteed right; the founders considered it intrinsic to maintaining the system of government.

Clothing isn’t directly, though going from memory, there is some case law on clothing in schools and interaction with the First Amendment.

googles

Yeah. Actually got some bounds on both sides.

https://legal-info.lawyers.com/research/education-law/when-does-the-first-amendment-protect-what-students-wear-to-school.html

Arguments about school dress codes are nothing new. Specific disputes may change with fashion and the political controversies of the day—from old battles over boys’ hair length to more recent controversies over blue hair and the way transgender kids dress. But one basic question remains: Do students have the right under the First Amendment to express their opinions or identity through what they wear to public school?

Courts have set out some guidelines for deciding the answer to that question in different situations. The rules are different when schools:

• punish students for wearing clothes (usually T-shirts) that communicate a viewpoint with words, pictures, or symbols, or

• require all students to wear uniforms or impose general bans on types of clothes, jewelry, or hairstyles (known as “content-neutral” restrictions).

When Clothes Speak Loud and Clear

Public schools must respect students’ constitutional right to freedom of expression—which extends to the messages students wear on their T-shirts and other clothes. But the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed certain limits on free speech in the school setting. Schools can punish students for wearing clothing with words, images, or symbols that:

• are vulgar or lewd (Bethel School Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986)),

• promote illegal drug use (Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007)), or

• are likely to cause serious disruption at school or violate other students’ rights (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969)).

Students often display opinions on their T-shirts that make some of their teachers and classmates uncomfortable or even angry. That reaction isn’t enough to meet the Tinker standard. For example, courts have found that schools couldn’t bar students from wearing:

• black armbands as an antiwar protest (Tinker)

• buttons protesting the use of “scabs” during a teachers’ strike (Chandler v. McMinnville School Dist., 978 F.2d 524 (9th Cir. 1992)

• a T-shirt with a picture of the U.S. president and the words “International Terrorist” (Barber v. Dearborn Public Schools, 286 F.Supp.2d 847 (E.D. Mich. 2003)), or

• a T-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association with an image of guns (Newsom v. Albemarle County School Bd., 354 F.3d 249 (4th Cir. 2003).