Opinion ID: 1036439
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: H., K.M., and three other students wore the “I ♥

Text: boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets at Easton Area Middle School during the 2010–2011 school year. A few teachers, after observing the students wear the bracelets 8 every day for several weeks, considered whether they should take action. The teachers’ responses varied: One found the bracelets offensive because they trivialized breast cancer. Others feared that the bracelets might lead to offensive comments or invite inappropriate touching. But school administrators also believed that middleschool boys did not need the bracelets as an excuse to make sexual statements or to engage in inappropriate touching. See, e.g., Viglianti Test., App. 196, 198 (testifying that such incidents “happened before the bracelets” and were “going to happen after the bracelets” because “sexual curiosity between boys and girls in the middle school is . . . a natural and continuing thing”). In mid- to late September, four or five teachers asked the eighth-grade assistant principal, Amy Braxmeier, whether they should require students to remove the bracelets. The seventh-grade assistant principal, Anthony Viglianti, told the teachers that they should ask students to remove “wristbands that have the word ‘boobie’ written on them,” App. 343, even though there were no reports that the bracelets had caused any in-school disruptions or inappropriate comments.1 1 In mid-October before the ban was publicly announced, school administrators received some unrelated reports of inappropriate touching, but neither the word “boobies” nor the bracelets were considered a cause of these incidents. 9 With Breast Cancer Awareness Month approaching in October, school administrators anticipated that the “I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets might reappear.2 The school was scheduled to observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month on October 28, so the day before, administrators publicly announced, for the first time, the ban on bracelets containing the word “boobies.” Using the word “boobies” in his announcement, Viglianti notified students of the ban over the public-address system, and a student did the same on the school’s television station. The Middle School still encouraged students to wear the traditional pink, and it provided teachers who donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure with either a pin bearing the slogan “Passionately Pink for the Cure” or a T-shirt reading “Real Rovers Wear Pink.” Later that day, a school security guard noticed B.H. wearing an “I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelet and ordered her to remove it. B.H. refused. After meeting with Braxmeier, B.H. relented, removed her bracelet, and returned to lunch. No disruption occurred at any time that day. The following day, B.H. and K.M. each wore their “I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets to observe 2 The Middle School permits students to wear the Foundation’s “check y♥urself (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets. 10 the Middle School’s Breast Cancer Awareness Day. The day was uneventful—until lunchtime. Once in the cafeteria, both girls were instructed by a school security guard to remove their bracelets. Both girls refused. Hearing this encounter, another girl, R.T., stood up and similarly refused to take off her bracelet. Confronted by this act of solidarity, the security guard permitted the girls to finish eating their lunches before escorting them to Braxmeier’s office. Again, the girls’ actions caused no disruption in the cafeteria, though R.T. told Braxmeier that one boy had immaturely commented either that he also “love[d] boobies” or that he “love[d] her boobies.” Braxmeier spoke to all three girls, and R.T. agreed to remove her bracelet. B.H. and K.M. stood firm, however, citing their rights to freedom of speech. The Middle School administrators were having none of it. They punished B.H. and K.M. by giving each of them one and a half days of in-school suspension and by forbidding them from attending the Winter Ball. The administrators notified the girls’ families, explaining only that B.H. and K.M. were being disciplined for “disrespect,” “defiance,” and “disruption.” News of the bracelets quickly reached the rest of the Easton Area School District, which instituted a district-wide ban on the “I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets, effective on November 9, 2010. The only bracelet-related incident reported by school 11 administrators occurred weeks after the district-wide ban: Two girls were talking about their bracelets at lunch when a boy who overheard them interrupted and said something like “I want boobies.” He also made an inappropriate gesture with two red spherical candies. The boy admitted his “rude” comment and was suspended for one day.3 This was not the first time the Middle School had banned clothing that it found distasteful. Indeed, the School District’s dress-code policy prohibits “clothing imprinted with nudity, vulgarity, obscenity, profanity, and double entendre pictures or slogans.”4 Under the policy, seventh-grade students at the Middle School have been asked to remove clothing promoting Hooters and Big Pecker’s Bar & Grill, as well as clothing bearing the phrase “Save the ta-tas” (another breast-cancerawareness slogan). Typically, students are disciplined only if they actually refuse to remove the offending apparel when asked to do so. B. Procedural history 3 After the district-wide ban was in place, there were several incidents of middle-school boys inappropriately touching girls, but they were unrelated to the “I ♥ boobies! (KEEP A BREAST)” bracelets. 4 B.H. and K.M. do not assert a facial challenge to the constitutionality of the dress-code policy. 12 Through their mothers, B.H. and K.M. sued the School District under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.5 Compl., ECF No. 1 ¶ 3, B.H. v. Easton Area Sch. Dist., No. 5:10-CV06283-MAM (E.D. Pa. Nov. 15, 2010). They sought a temporary restraining order allowing them to attend the Winter Ball and a preliminary injunction against the bracelet ban. B.H. v. Easton Area Sch. Dist., 827 F. Supp. 2d 392, 394 (E.D. Pa. 2011). At the District Court’s urging, the School District reversed course and permitted B.H. and K.M. to attend the Winter Ball while retaining the option to impose a comparable punishment if the bracelet ban was upheld. Id. The District Court accordingly denied the motion for a temporary restraining order. Id. The District Court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction. It soon became clear that the School District’s rationale for disciplining B.H. and K.M. had shifted. Although B.H.’s and K.M.’s disciplinary letters indicated only that they were being disciplined for “disrespect,” “defiance,” and “disruption,” the School District ultimately based the ban 5 The District Court had both federal-question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and § 1983 jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(a)(3). See Max v. Republican Comm. of Lancaster Cnty., 587 F.3d 198, 199 n.1 (3d Cir. 2009). 13 on its dress-code policy6 together with the bracelets’ alleged sexual innuendo. According to the School District’s witnesses, the Middle School assistant principals had conferred and concluded that the bracelets “conveyed a sexual double entendre” that could be harmful and confusing to students of different physical and sexual developmental levels. Sch. Dist.’s Br. at 9. And the principals believed that middle-school students, who often have immature views of sex, were particularly likely to interpret the bracelets that way. For its part, the Foundation explained that no one there “ever suggested that the phrase ‘I (Heart) Boobies!’ is meant to be sexy.” App. 150. To that end, the Foundation had denied requests from truck stops, convenience stores, vending machine companies, and pornographers to sell the 6 Even the Middle School administrators seemed unsure which words would be prohibited by the dress code. When deposed, Viglianti and principal Angela DiVietro testified that the word “breast” (as in apparel stating “keep-a-breast.org” or “breast cancer awareness”) would be inappropriate because the word “breast” “can be construed as [having] a sexual connotation.” App. 490, 497. At the District Court’s evidentiary hearing, they reversed course. Viglianti stated that “keep-a-breast.org” would be appropriate “[i]n the context of Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” and DiVeitro no longer believed the phrase “breast cancer awareness” was vulgar to middleschool students. 14 bracelets. After the evidentiary hearing, the District Court preliminarily enjoined the School District’s bracelet ban. According to the District Court, B.H. and K.M. were likely to succeed on the merits because the bracelets did not contain lewd speech under Fraser and did not threaten to substantially disrupt the school environment under Tinker. The District Court could find no other basis for regulating the student speech at issue. The School District appealed, and the District Court denied its request to stay the injunction pending this appeal.