A father has filed a lawsuit against an Ohio school district he claims “punished” his son for wearing a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt to school.
The lawsuit, obtained by Fox News Digital, alleges a teacher and principal at Madison Middle School in Mansfield violated a student’s First Amendment right to free speech and 14th Amendment right to due process when he was punished for wearing the shirt to school several times.
The first incident happened in November, according to the lawsuit, when the boy wore the T-shirt beneath a flannel shirt in a hallway before class had started.
A teacher, identified as a registered Democrat in the complaint, allegedly made the boy button up the shirt to cover the message, telling him, “I know what that means.”
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The next incident happened later in the day, when the boy attended the same teacher’s class.
The student reportedly removed his flannel to cool off, but when the teacher noticed the T-shirt again, she issued the boy a “pink slip” and sent him to the principal’s office for discipline.
According to the complaint, the principal “demanded” the boy wear the flannel for the rest of the day and “never again wear an item communicating the content of this speech.”
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A third incident occurred when the student wore the same T-shirt again in January, when the teacher who was involved in the November incidents noticed and pulled him aside and asked, “Do you like offending people?” according to the complaint.
“That’s not my problem, nobody has to read my shirt,” the boy responded, and the teacher allegedly gave him a “dirty look” and walked away.
The principal later met with the boy and his father, Richard Conrad, and claimed the phrase is “code” for a vulgar expression. However, his father argued he does not interpret the slogan that way.
A fourth incident happened when the boy was given detention by the principal for wearing the T-shirt to school again March 24. The school emailed the father about the boy’s “repeated violations” of the student code of conduct, which it said is set by the board of education.
The complaint alleges the school’s dress code is “unconstitutionally vague” and gives individual employees too much discretion in enforcing it.
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The “Let’s Go Brandon” catchphrase, used by American conservatives to criticize Biden, originated in October 2021.
The phrase originiated during a NASCAR interview and is a G-rated substitute for “F— Joe Biden” chants popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. The explicit saying was recited at sporting events across the country in defiance of the president’s coronavirus mandates.
Conrad’s lawsuit claims the phrase is “a popular expression of certain people’s opinions toward the American media and politics” and is not vulgar.
Madison Local School District Superintendent Robert Peterson told Fox News Digital he was aware of the lawsuit but could not comment on any details since it’s being actively litigated.
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In 2023, two students who were prohibited from wearing clothing with the same phrase to school filed a lawsuit against their Michigan school district.
The district and its employees were “censoring students who try to express support for former President Donald Trump or opposition to President Joe Biden,” according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which describes itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought,” represented the Tri County Middle School students who sued the school district for viewpoint discrimination after they were ordered to remove sweatshirts they wore to school that featured the phrase in February 2022.
In a similar situation to Conrad’s, an assistant principal and a teacher “ordered the boys to remove their sweatshirts” for allegedly violating a dress code while allowing other students to wear other political apparel like “gay-pride-themed hoodies,” according to FIRE.
“Criticism of the president is core political speech protected by the First Amendment,” FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick previously said. “Whether it’s a Biden sticker, ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sweatshirt or Gay Pride T-shirt, schools can’t pick and choose which political beliefs students can express.”
FIRE said the incident involving the two students is part of a “pattern of political favoritism” by the school district that it is “wrongly relying on a policy that prohibits ‘profane’ clothing to censor this particular message.”
“When the school district relaxed the dress code for field day, a school administrator ordered a student to stop wearing a Trump flag as a cape but permitted other students to wear gay pride flags in the same manner,” the group said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
“The slogan exists as a way to express an anti-Biden message without using profanity,” Fitzpatrick said. “A public school district cannot censor speech just because it might cause someone to think about a swear word.”
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis and Kyle Morris contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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