BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – School administrators say student dress codes are going to be even more difficult to enforce now that a federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a Williamstown student’s right to wear a controversial T-shirt.

Judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged the difficulty that schools face, saying the issue was akin to waters “rife with rocky shoals and uncertain currents.”

The issue is how to determine when banned symbols on a shirt are part of a larger political statement.

and should be permitted.

The court said Zachary Guilds should have been allowed to wear a T-shirt referring to President Bush as “chicken hawk in chief,” which also contained symbols of a martini glass and cocaine that alluded to charges of substance abuse in the president’s past.

Images of drug or alcohol use are not permitted in many school dress codes, though, which was why Guilds’ shirt was banned. Now, administrators are going to have to examine such symbols in the context of a garment’s overall political message.

Burlington schools Superintendent Jeanne Collins said she was concerned.

“If you look at a T-shirt and you see martini glasses, you can’t assume that your average seventh-grader is going to see the political message,” she said. “It adds one more layer of expectation that is very gray.”

Guiles, then 13, bought his shirt at a peace rally and wore it to Williamstown Middle-High School. Another student’s complaint led administrators to tell Guiles he had to wear the shirt inside out, tape over the alcohol and drug images or change clothes. He refused all three and was sent home.

His family sued the school with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. District Court Judge William Sessions ruled that the school could censor images of drugs and alcohol but appeals judges said they were part of an anti-drug use political message that the student had a right to express.

Administrators said the ruling likely would require them to spend more time sorting out dress code issues. “I think it opens the door for more challenges,” said Mary Woodruff, principal of Winooski Middle School. How is the symbol on my T-shirt, how is the language on my T-shirt truly interpreted?”

—

Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com

AP-ES-09-03-06 1304EDT