A federal court ruled Thursday that a northern California high school did not violate the constitutional rights of its students when school officials made them turn their American flag T-shirts inside out on Cinco de Mayo or be sent home due to fears of racial violence.
The three-judge panel unanimously decided the officials’ need to protect the safety of their students outweighed the students’ freedom of expression rights.
The attorneys for a Miami Northwestern Senior High School student who brought a loaded gun to school in 2011 argued that school administrators had violated his constitutional rights when they unreasonably searched his backpack. The attorneys fought to keep the weapon from being used as evidence in the case.
But in an opinion released Thursday, a state appeals court ruled the search was reasonable.