High school lifts ban on 'I can't breathe' T-shirts at basketball tournament after threatened suit
A California high school on Monday reversed course and decided that teams participating in a basketball tournament may wear warm-up shirts reading “I can’t breathe.”
The Fort Bragg High School lifted the ban after First Amendment lawyer Karen Boyd got involved, report the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.
Teams of boy and girls at Mendocino High School had planned to wear T-shirts with the phrase uttered by Eric Garner before he died in a police chokehold.
Tournament officials said they wanted to avoid political controversy and initially banned the teams from the tournament. Most members of the Mendocino boys’ team agreed not to wear the shirts and then were allowed to play. The girls’ team, however, did not relent and it was not allowed to play.
The American Civil Liberties Union is negotiating with school officials to add a game to the tournament to accommodate the girls’ team, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat says, citing information from a parent who contacted the ACLU over the controversy.
Meanwhile the coach of the boys’ team at Mendocino said that, even though the T-shirt ban has been lifted, he would not allow his team members to wear the T-shirts during warm-ups on Tuesday. “As the coach, I’m choosing what uniform they’ll be wearing tomorrow,” coach Jim Young told the Press Democrat.