ACLU: Iowa student made to wash ‘love trumps hate’ off his arm

NEWTON - The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa has lodged a complaint with the Newton school district alleging high school administrators made a student wash the words 'love trumps hate” off his arm in November and threatened to deny other students their varsity letters if they participated in a walkout to support the boy.

The ACLU compared the situation in Newton, a central Iowa city of about 15,000 people, to Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court found in 1969 Des Moines students should have been allowed to wear black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War.

'The writing on (the student's) arm, ‘love trumps hate,' is protected speech,” the ACLU wrote in the letter emailed Friday to Newton Superintendent Bob Callaghan and School Board President Travis Padget. The organization provided media outlets with a copy of the letter with the student's name removed.

'The school seems to have engaged in both content discrimination - which was not justified under these facts by a specific concern about substantial and material disruption to school - and viewpoint discrimination, which is never permissible outside of specific instances of the promotion of illegal activity or violating the rights of others (such as being slanderous, libelous, bullying, harassing, vulgar or obscene),” the ACLU noted.

The organization said the student was drawing on his arm Nov. 14 in gym class, when teacher Brian Smith said 'don't be drawing on yourself, girl.” The student, who is transgender, expressed his desire to identify as a boy two years ago and generally has been supported by the school, the ACLU said.

Assistant Principal Dave Kalkhoff told the student to wash the words off his arm or leave school grounds, the ACLU said. 'Rather than face discipline as a result of truancy, (he) decided to wash the message off his arm,” the organization said.

The student had previously written and drawn on his arm without repercussions, the complaint states.

When the student's classmates planned a walkout and protest for Nov. 15 'to communicate a message of support of love, diversity and inclusivity,” teachers said if students participated, they would not be given varsity letters, the complaint states.

'Facing concerns from parents” the principal released a statement Nov. 16 saying students who walked out would face no additional discipline beyond a recorded absence, the complaint states.

The ACLU is asking Newton administrators to apologize to the student, instruct staff to refer to students by their chosen gender and provide First Amendment training to staff.

Callaghan, the superintendent, did not immediately respond to a phone call from The Gazette about the complaint.

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