BH ex rel. Hawk v. Easton Area School District

A breast-cancer foundation launched a breast-cancer-awareness campaign with the slogan “I ♥ boobies.” The motivation behind the irreverent slogan was to encourage young people to break perceived taboos surrounding conversations about breast cancer. BH (plaintiff), a student at an Easton Area School District (district) (defendant) middle school, embraced the campaign and, along with several classmates, began wearing bracelets with the slogan to school. Several faculty members expressed reservations about the bracelets to school administrators, even though the bracelets had not caused any disruptions. The administration agreed to ban the bracelets, and the decision was announced over the school public-address system by the seventh-grade assistant principal. The assistant principal used the term boobies while making the announcement. Later, BH and two classmates chose to wear the bracelets during the school’s observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Day. BH and a classmate refused to remove the bracelets when asked, and the school suspended them. The district then issued a district-wide ban of the bracelets. BH sued the district, claiming violation of her right to free expression under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of BH, and the district appealed.