ACLU to honor teen activist ( Bush is a terrorist T-shirt )

DEARBORN -- The 11th-grader at Dearborn High School who was sent home for wearing a T-shirt that called President Bush an international terrorist will be honored by the man who sparked the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on freedom of speech in schools.

Bretton Barber was sent home on Feb. 17 after he refused to turn the controversial shirt inside out. The school district said the shirt was disruptive and could have caused an incident.

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Barber's behalf to force the district to let him wear the shirt. U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan plans to hold a hearing on the ACLU's suit April 25.

Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan ACLU, said after the lawsuit was filed, at least three students in other schools across the nation have been allowed to wear the shirts, including a 10th-grader at Grosse Pointe South High School. A Fairfax County, Va., student and a Washington State University student were both allowed to wear the shirt after the ACLU filed the lawsuit in Detroit, she added.

Barber will be honored by the ACLU of Michigan at its annual meeting on Nov. 8 for courage. The award will be presented by John Tinker, the student who sparked the landmark Supreme Court case, Tinker vs. Des Moines, in 1969.

John Tinker, now a 52-year-old software analyst living in Fayette, Mo., was expelled from school for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War.


The justices ruled that constitutional protections "are not shed at the school house gate."