A Fight for the First Amendment

Parents of Colleen Urban have filled suit in U.S. federal court in Philadelphia on Friday against Alan Alda High School arguing that their daughter’s First Amendment right to free expression was violated.
Urban, the fifteen-year-old sophomore from Alan Alda High School, was suspended for wearing a t-shirt with the phrase; “If there is a God, she would end the war in Iraq”.
Urban was confronted about her t-shirt in her fifth period history class by her teacher, Jan Gorlin. Gorlin made disparaging remarks about Urban’s t-shirt in front of the class.
“I only teach students who really value what America stands for”, said Gorlin to the class.
According to officials Gorlin then grabbed Urban by the arm and led her to the principal’s office where Vice Principal, Maureen Reed, demanded that Urban change her shirt. After refusing to change her shirt Principal Mike Bauer called Urban’s parents to inform them that she was being suspended from school for “disrupting the educational environment”.
Urban was then escorted from school by a school security guard to the front entrance to wait for her parents outside in below freezing temperatures.
Marty Urban, Colleen’s father, was outraged.

“This is America, isn’t it? All of us - and that includes students - should be allowed to say what we want”, Marty Urban said.
The School District, in the person of Reed, claims in an interview that Urban’s t-shirt interfered with the right of school officials to maintain discipline in the classroom.
“We just wanted to ensure that Colleen’s actions didn’t get in the way of learning … “We have every right to put a stop to potentially disruptive actions”, Reed said.
The Urban’s have hired attorney Sheila McGee of Tinker, Evers, and Chance in Wilmington, Delaware.
“The School district’s right to maintain order ends when a student hasn’t disrupted anything … Students do not leave their opinions and their right to free expression at the schoolhouse gate”, McGee said.
Urban’s mother, Rose Urban, had this to say; “She’s not in a great frame of mind right now, but she really wasn’t trying to disrupt anything- she just wanted to state her opinion about the war.

by: Alex Schultheis