PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge Tuesday ruled that Pennsylvania middle school students should be allowed to wear “I Heart Boobies” bracelets, finding the breast cancer awareness slogan neither “crude” nor “vulgar.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Pennsylvania’s Easton Area School District on behalf of two students who were suspended for a day and a half and banned from a school dance after they wore the Keep A Breast Foundation bracelets in defiance of school policy.
The ACLU argued the Easton Area Middle School, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia, had violated the students’ First Amendment right to free speech by banning them from wearing the rubber bracelets.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Mary McLaughlin granted a temporary injunction against the school’s policy, allowing the students to display their love of breast cancer awareness programs on their wrists.
Judge McLaughlin found that the school district had not proved that the bracelets were crude nor vulgar, nor had it shown the jewelery would disrupt the school’s operations.
“The bracelets are intended to be and they can reasonably be viewed as speech designed to raise awareness of breast cancer and to reduce stigma associated with openly discussing breast health,” McLaughlin wrote in a memorandum on the injunction.