Judge Allows Students’ Hitler Youth Buttons

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First Amendment

Judge Allows Students’ Hitler Youth Buttons

Posted Sep 21, 2007, 09:21 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A New Jersey school may not bar fifth-grade students from wearing a Hitler Youth button to protest school uniforms, a federal judge has ruled.

Judge Joseph Greenaway of Newark said there was no evidence the buttons will disrupt the educational process and it is likely the kids will prevail on their First Amendment claims, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. He issued a preliminary injunction against the button ban by the Bayonne, N.J., school district.

The photo on the button depicted rows of grim young men, all facing the same direction and all wearing the same outfits. The words “No School Uniforms” were imposed over the photograph, the New York Times reports.

Greenaway said the image was "a rather innocuous photograph” that “might easily be mistaken for a historical photograph of the Boy Scouts.” In a footnote, he warned, "If the student in this case had displayed a swastika, a Confederate flag, or a burning cross, then this court's analysis would differ greatly."

The school district expressed concern that the ruling sets a bad precedent. “Images of racial and ethnic intolerance do not belong in an elementary school classroom,” schools superintendent Patricia McGeehan said in a statement.

One of the students, Michael DePinto, told the Times he was making a point about conformity and did not intend to offend anyone. “It’s like forcing a swastika on someone,” he said. “It’s what Hitler did to his youth.”

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