By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

The American Civil Liberties Union last week filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of a Naperville high school student who wore a T-shirt opposing homosexuality to school.

The brief, filed Feb. 18, argued that Indian Prairie School District’s policy prohibiting disparaging speech is vague and should distinguish between protected protest commentary and harassment.

The school district invoked the policy in April 2006 when Heidi Zamecnik, then a student at Neugua Valley High School, was forbidden from wearing a T-shirt that read “Be Happy, Not Gay.” Zamecnik wanted to wear the T-shirt again last year and asked a U.S. District Court Judge to allow her to do so. She has since graduated.

The ACLU’s John Knight said the organization filed the brief because “we don’t think that students should have to get their speech pre-cleared.”

The T-shirt was supposedly in observance of Day of Truth, sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund in response to the Day of Silence sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. ADF has been representing Zamecnic.

Knight said the brief did not officially support either party in the suit. However, he added, “It’s important to provide some guidance to the courts to protect (free speech) interests.”

He acknowledged that some students might have felt insulted by Zacmenik’s T-shirt. “But every putdown can’t be suppressed,” he said, adding that the ACLU would likely take the same stance had the T-shirt addressed a specific ethnic or religious group.

“In many of these cases, schools, rather than doing what they should do, start out just by suppressing student speech,” Knight said. “They need to use this as a moment to teach tolerance and diversity.”

He said that free speech rights ultimately benefit GLBT students at the school. The ACLU’s brief, according to Knight, ultimately ensures that the school cannot stifle pro-GLBT statements either.

Free speech “(has) been the friend of LGBT students for many years,” Knight said.

Shannon Sullivan, of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, said her organization understood the ACLU’s position.

“The ACLU (historically) comes from a free speech perspective,” she said. “They don’t want to see people silenced.”

“These T-shirts are an emerging issue,” Sullivan said. “Administrators want to do the right thing, which was obviously not done in this case. People have to draw blunt lines with these school policies.”