Camo pants and jackets banned along political messages on clothing

cbs4denver.com - Tensions Change Dress Code At Local Middle School:
"In Longmont, the principal of Skyline High School banned all flags, including the American flag, because of tensions related to immigration reform."

All it took was about two dozen students wearing camo pants and jackets to convince the principal of Shaw Heights Middle School to announce a change in the school dress code to ban expressions of patriotism.

It seems the students adopted the camo gear as a political statement showing pride in being American and opposing unlimited illegal immigration. Other students, with a different slant on politics, then began calling them names. This is what is known in the trade as a "teachable moment" - a time when students can see concretely the point of the lesson.

At that moment, the principal could have called an assembly and reminded students that free speech is for everyone but no one has the right to cause a disturbance just to show the degree of their disagreement with someone else exercising their equal right to free speech.

However, it appears that principal Myla Shepherd seized the moment to deliver a different lesson. The lesson Ms. Shepherd chose to teach her charges was that free speech does not exist in the school. That when people object to what you say you must shut up. And, for those who caused the disturbance, they learned that they don't need to debate or tolerate opinions with which they disagree; all they have to do is raise a stink and the authorities will make the offensive opinion go away.

I'm showing my age here, but I thought the US Supreme Court had dealt with this issue 30 years ago when they held that a public high school couldn't prevent students from wearing arm bands in support of anti-Vietnam war protests.