Ruling in lawsuit over anti-gay shirt appealed [View All]

Attorneys for a local student who sued his school district after being suspended for wearing an anti-gay shirt to school said Monday that they are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a lower-court ruling this month that allows the Poway Unified School District to bar students from wearing on their clothing any statements that the district deems offensive.

The attorneys want the federal 9th Circuit of Appeals to impose an injunction that a lower court denied.

The student, Tyler Chase Harper, is asking the appeals court to make the school district stop doing what his attorneys said was a selective ban on religious freedom.

The civil suit, filed in June, alleges that officials at Poway High School violated the teenager's free-speech rights in April when they suspended him for writing anti-gay statements and biblical references on masking tape and placing the tape on his shirt.

The boy's attorneys filed their notice of appeal less than a week after they amended their original complaint to include the boy's younger sister in the suit. Kelsie K. Harper, 14, is now a freshman at the high school.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/23/news/top_stories/19_52_3311_22_04.txt