Thu, May 15, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

The dress code that the Clark County School District has adopted to promote a better learning environment does not violate students’ free speech rights.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came to that conclusion in a 2-1 ruling released Monday.

Then-student Kimberly Jacobs repeatedly violated Liberty High School’s dress code in 2004 by wearing T-shirts bearing religious messages, when plain clothing was required. After she was suspended, the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union took up her case, arguing unsuccessfully in U.S. District Court that her First Amendment rights had been violated.

An ACLU appeal to the 9th Circuit Court resulted in Monday’s ruling, which stated that the district’s dress code policy is constitutional and was written to create “an educational environment free from the distractions, dangers and disagreements that result when student clothing choices are left unrestricted.”

Allen Lichtenstein, Nevada ACLU’s attorney in Las Vegas, said he will request that the case be reheard by the full appeals court. Lichtenstein, as well as the panel’s dissenting judge, said the ruling goes against a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

In that case, an Iowa school’s decision to suspend students who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War was ruled unconstitutional. But that case was not about a dress code that applied to all students. It was about the school’s objection to what armbands symbolized. “A particular symbol ... was singled out for prohibition,” the high court wrote.

We believe the federal courts have been correct so far in ruling that a school district’s dress code, even one that prohibits the wearing of certain colors as well as words, logos and symbols, does not violate students’ constitutional rights.

Just as judges insist upon decorum in their courtrooms to help maintain order, school officials should have the right to insist upon reasonable dress codes to help maintain discipline, without which learning is impossible.