Judge weighs student's rights in PdL case

PANAMA CITY - U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak heard the first day of argument Monday in the civil trial of a Holmes County high school student who is suing the School Board because she said it is suppressing her right to express in-school support for gays.

Smoak could return with a decision Tuesday on whether she has that right.

“I just wanted to put my belief out there that gays and lesbians should be accepted by everyone and not ridiculed,” Heather Gillman, 17, a Ponce DeLeon High School junior, said from the stand Monday. Gillman sued the Holmes County School Board after her cousin, who is openly gay, and several others were suspended between Sept. 21 and 24 for “expressing their support for the fair treatment of gays and lesbians,” according to her complaint.

Gillman wants the right to wear T-shirts to school with slogans supporting gay rights and with gay pride symbols.

Gillman said when she wore a T-shirt to school with a pro-gay message last year, administrators did not ask her to remove the shirt, nor did she get into trouble. She said one teacher read it and laughed and one student commented approvingly.

She acknowledged, however, that she wore her shirt in opposition to Principal David Davis' suspension of 10 students and not simply as a message of her beliefs.

Gillman said she was instructed through a letter from the School Board that the shirts with messages on them are not acceptable and she fears she will be suspended if she wears them.

The School Board contends that it has the right to suppress free speech if it could lead to disruptions in learning.

On May 1, Smoak decided there were issues of dispute that needed to be resolved at trial, including whether the messages Gillman is trying to convey are appropriate for the age of students who would be exposed to them.

Smoak also wants to see whether the messages are vulgar, or if there is a clear connection between the slogans and disruptions in school activities. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that free speech in schools cannot be suppressed unless it causes disruptions in the learning process.

Gillman's lawyer, Garrard Beeney, told Smoak in his opening statement the disruptions in September were not connected to Gillman's slogans.

“The students were responding to their perception, whether real or imagined, that the administration was engaged in what amounted to an anti-gay witch hunt,” Beeney said. “The ban (on gay pride slogans and symbols) is motivated by disagreement with the message.”

More coverage as it develops...