Are political messages on students’ clothing protected?

Most of the time political messages on students’ clothing are protected following by the dress-code as long they are not conveyed in a vulgar or lewd fashion. According to the court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist. 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that public school could wear black armbands to school. The black armbands was use to protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam. The students were engaging in a form of symbolic speech that was “akin to pure speech.” Toward the last decision, the court had recognized that students have more protection when they engage in political expression. It is also very important how students use language to convey a political message on dressing. For example, in 1992 the federal court in Virginia had rejected a student’s First Amendment. She claims that she should not be punished for wearing a t-shirt that says “Drugs Suck” to class. Although, they feel that the message spoke about an important political tropic, but the court had determined that the word “sucks” was too vulgar and could prohibited.

SOurce: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/studentexpression/topic_faqs.aspx?topic=clothing_dress_codes_uniforms