Federal judge rules ‘boobies’ is not vulgar

A federal judge has ruled in favor of two students who wore breast-cancer awareness bracelets to their middle school, even after they knew the be-sloganed accessories had been banned by administrators.

The bracelets said "I [heart] boobies" and "Check yourself" alongside the website address of the non-profit organization Keep A Breast.

Judge Mary McLauglin's 40-page decision says that even though school districts have the right to ban lewd speech, the word "boobies" is not vulgar. "The School itself used the word 'boobies' in a prepared statement delivered by a student announcing the bracelet ban. A school would not have been willing to use lewd or vulgar language in a broadcast to its entire student body," she writes, and also lists the Oxford English Dictionary's non-breast definitions of the word. (A booby is also a sea bird, thank you very much.)

The judge rejects the district's second argument, that the bracelets caused a significant disruption to learning. The school, she writes, did not provide adequate proof that any disruption occurred.

The Easton Area School District is appealing the decision to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Its lawyer John Freund told the AP the decision "undermines the authority of school officials to promote civil dialogue and maintain decorum in the schools."

Mary Catherine Roper, attorney with the Pennsylvania ACLU, which is defending the girls, says there are several school districts around the country that have disputed the bracelets. She says the Easton Area's argument that two boys in the middle school used the bracelets as an excuse to talk about girls' breasts inappropriately should not lead to outlawing the bracelets altogether.

"Our response to that is you just cannot ban everything that a 12-year-old boy is going to take inappropriately," she said. "The right response to that is to punish those two boys--not to keep those girls from saying something socially worthwhile."

McLaughlin also includes the full text of a presentation by student Matthew Fraser in her decision, which set the precedent that allows school districts to ban lewd speech even if it doesn't cause a substantial disruption. The speech is an "elaborate, graphic and explicit sexual metaphor" that Fraser made to the school body while nominating his friend for office.

(Photo from Keep A Breast)