Local High School Silences Student

Colleen Urban, a 15-year-old sophomore at Alan Alda High School started her Friday morning with the same routine; wake-up, get dressed, and catch the bus to school. However, this day was not ordinary by any means. Colleen found herself suspended for “wearing an offensive t-shirt” claims school principal, Mike Bauer, which read, “If there is a God, she would end the war in Iraq.”

Parents in all school districts send their child/children off to school to acquire an education in an establishment with rules & guidelines, ensuring a peaceful and non-disruptive learning environment. In an interview with the School District of Alan Alda High School, a representative for vice Principal Maureen Reed stated that the administration “has every right to put a stop to potentially disruptive actions and they simply wanted to ensure that Colleens actions didn’t get in the way of learning.”

For the Urban family, it is was not the rules and guidelines set forth by the school that was upsetting, but the actions of the administration and high school staff, who they feel violated Colleen’s constitutional rights. According to Colleen, it wasn’t until her fifth period class where the saying on her t-shirt became an issue. Jan Gorlin, her fifth period U.S. History teacher made several remarks in front of the class such as, “I only teach students who value what America really stands for.” Furthermore, Urban claims that as Gorlin escorted her to principal Bauer’s office she remarked, “you brought this on yourself- this would be so much easier if you let God into your heart.”

U.S. public schools safeguard against any one religion being taught to its pupils, yet the U.S. constitution does allow us to have free speech which allows all citizens to verbally express their opinions. Yet, when do opinions cross the line when it comes to public schools? If there are lines that cannot be crossed, who decides what they are? In this circumstance, Urban’s t-shirt expressed her personal belief, even though it had religious undertones, is it fair that a public school teacher can verbally express her religious beliefs while a student cannot express religious beliefs on clothing?

The situation escalated, according to Urban, when she states that Reed through a school t-shirt at her face, striking her, after asking her to change. When Urban refused, Bauer phoned Colleen’s parents, informing them of her suspension for “disrupting the educational environment.” Bauer then proceeded to ask one of the six full time security guards to escort Urban to the front entrance to wait for her parents to pick her up with temperature reaching in the mid teens.

Urban’s parents are so disparaged at the High School’s actions against their daughter that they filed suit in the U.S. federal court in Philadelphia, stating that Colleen’s First Amendment rights to free expression have been violated as well as a staff members comments that violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Rose Urban, Colleen’s mom, says that “Colleen wasn’t trying to disrupt anything…she just wanted to state her opinion about the war,” and her father, Marty Urban, felt that “this is America, isn’t it? All of us, which includes students, should be allowed to say what we want.

The Urban’s have put their daughter’s case in the hands of attorney Sheila McGee from the Delaware firm Tinker, Evans, and Chance. McGee comments that, “the school district’s right to maintain order ends when a students hasn’t disrupted anything. Students do not leave their opinion and their right to free expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Time will only tell if there are limits of free speech vs. disruptive speech in public schools.