T-Shirt Taboos
L.M., a seventh-grade student, showed up to class wearing a black t-shirt with the words “There Are Only Two Genders” printed in bold letters. L.M. said he wore the shirt to express his personal belief that gender is synonymous with biological sex and that there are only two.
A teacher flagged the shirt to the school’s assistant principal, citing concerns about the safety of both L.M. and other students. L.M. was pulled from class and told the shirt violated the school’s dress code policy.
The dress code stated, in part, the following:
Clothing must not state, imply, or depict hate speech or imagery that target[s] groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification.
Any other apparel that the administration determines to be unacceptable to our community standards will not be allowed.
L.M. refused to remove the shirt and was sent home. He was not formally disciplined.
Two weeks later, L.M. returned to school wearing the same shirt, but this time he had covered the words “Only Two” with a strip of tape that read “CENSORED.” School administrators again asked him to remove the shirt. L.M. removed the shirt and returned to class.
Later, two other students arrived at school wearing a “There Are Only Two Genders” t-shirt. One student complied when asked to remove it and returned to class. The other student refused, and their parents were called. Neither student was formally disciplined.
Supporting Links
Mark Walsh | Education Week | 05/27/25 (Article)
“Supreme Court Won’t Hear ‘Two Genders’ Student T-Shirt Case’”
The New York Times | 05/27/25 (Article)
“Justices Allow School to Bar Student From Wearing ‘Only Two Genders’ Shirt”
Additional Reading Materials
NYCLU | 09/18/24 (Article)
“Your Rights to Free Speech in Public Schools”
Aaron Terr | FIRE | 11/21/24 (Article)
“Wisconsin school district mulls unconstitutional ‘hate speech’ policy”
Jill K. Osborne, Esq. | Udall & Shumay (Document)
“Controversial Student T-shirts and School Discipline”
Jonathan Zimmerman | Divided We Fall | 10/01/2021 (Article)
“Fear, Loathing, and Dress Codes in American Schools”
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (Article)
Discussion Topics
- Defend the position that a secondary school must be able to limit speech in the interest of protecting the well-being of all students, and this speech was a direct assault on the identity of some students.
- Defend the position that schools should never censor students’ ability to express their own deeply held beliefs when not accompanied by individualized bullying or aggression.
- Should the school be required to demonstrate a significant risk of disruption or even an actual disruption to learning caused by the shirt in order to enforce its rule? Why or why not?
- Consider the actual words of the school’s rule: “Any other apparel that the administration determines to be unacceptable to our community standards will not be allowed.” Does this place too much discretion in the hands of an administration that could itself be motivated by conscious or unconscious bias?