Kid Sues Over First Amendment Right to Second Amendment Shirt: New at Reason

A Nevada school district unlawfully required a student not to wear a gun rights T-shirt, according to a First Amendment lawsuit filed today in federal court.

The lawsuit says that an 8th-grade student at Kendyl Depoali Middle School in Reno was prohibited from wearing a Firearms Policy Coalition t-shirt, which included the words “Don’t Tread On Me” and a coiled rattlesnake—a reference to the Revolution-era Gadsden flag—but no actual depiction of a firearm. It also included the letters “2A,” meaning the Second Amendment.

Brooke May, a teacher at the school, claimed last month that the shirt violated the dress code and said the 8th-grader could have his “Second Amendment rights when [he] turns[s] eighteen,” according to the complaint. The dress code prohibits “obscene” language, anything that “may be deemed a safety issue,” and “anything that promotes weapons.”

The student, who is named by the initials G.M. in the complaint because he is a minor, responded by covering the shirt with a sweatshirt. He has not worn it to school again, writes Declan McCullagh.

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