Dear Legal Mailbag:
I am a high school administrator at the James Hetfield High School (the board chair when the school was named was a big Metallica fan). A number of my faculty and staff have come to me very upset because a group of our students has organized a non-school sanctioned chapter of a national activist group that is very politically charged. They are referring to their “club” as the “James Hetfield High School Chapter of ___.” As of late, they have created a social media page and are taking pictures of themselves holding signs in different areas of the school building (library media center, gymnasium, etc.). Only willing participants are in the pictures, but some of the signs, while containing no swears, do contain some suggestive language.
Faculty members are asking me to do something, but I believe these students are within their First Amendment rights to organize and publicize their club. Our administrative team has told these students several times that their club is not school-sanctioned, but we have also told them that they can congregate and discuss things appropriately as an outside club during non-instructional time, since this is a public building. However, they do have this one big banner that spells out their chapter name, which includes the school name.
With the climate in the world today (and here at JHHS as of late), I...
