More than two years have passed since Avery Doninger of Burlington typed the words in her online journal that sparked a statewide debate over whether students have the right to call school administrators "douche bags" while not on school property.
Now, the case moves to whether Doninger's rights were violated when students supporting her in a battle against school officials were stopped from wearing T-shirts proclaiming that they were on her side, the Register Citizen reports
On Tuesday, the case began in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, where three judges will decide if officials from Lewis Mills High School violated Doninger's freedom of speech by not allowing students to wear “Team Avery” T-shirts when students gave election speeches for class office.
In court on Tuesday, Doninger vowed to fight "as far as necessary" for the right of students everywhere to speak of teachers and administrators as they see fit, the Waterbury Republican-American reports.
The controversy started when Doninger was 16 and wrote in her online journal how "pissed off" she was because the school had canceled an annual battle of the school bands that she had helped organize. The blog post was "not my finest moment," Doninger later admitted to MSNBC.
After posting her blog entry, she was disqualified her from running for senior class secretary as punishment, Doninger argued in a lawsuit, and she filed suit against the principal and superintendent, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated.
"I'm having trouble understanding how wearing of T-shirts is going to cause disruption," Judge José A. Cabranes, one of two panelists who did not hear the case during its first appearance before the same court in 2008, said, the Rep-Am reports. "I think we're all having difficulty following this line of reasoning."
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Region 10 attorney Thomas R. Gerarde told the judges it was a disruption of education, the newspaper reports.
