CLEVELAND (WJW) — A school district in Ohio infringed on a student’s right to free speech by punishing him for repeatedly wearing a T-shirt to school that reads “Let’s Go Brandon,” alleges a new federal civil rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in Ohio’s Northern District federal court by Richard Conrad Jr. on behalf of his son, a student at Madison Middle School in Mansfield, alleges violations of the boy’s First Amendment right to free speech and the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
It names as defendants the Madison Local School District, each of its five board of education members, the middle school’s principal and a teacher, and seeks an injunction to stop their “custom of treating free speech as a punishable offense.”
The first incident occurred in November. The boy wore the T-shirt beneath a flannel shirt in a hallway before class had started, according to the complaint. A teacher — whom the complaint identifies as a registered Democrat — made the boy button up the shirt to cover the message, telling him, “I know what that means.”
The phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” became a right-wing meme in 2021, and refers to a profane denouncement of former President Joe Biden.
Conrad’s lawsuit claims the phrase is “a popular expression of certain people’s opinion toward the American media and politics” and isn’t vulgar.
The boy later took off his over-shirt to cool off before attending the aforementioned teacher’s class, according to the complaint. When the teacher saw the shirt again, she issued the boy a “pink slip,” referring him to the principal for discipline.
The school district’s 2024-25 student handbook states clothing with “obscene, violent or suggestive language or images” is considered “non-appropriate dress,” though it notes the school’s principal “has the final say on appropriate attire.”
Students who violate the dress code are allowed to call their parents to have them bring them new clothes to school, according to the handbook. They can’t return to class until they’re wearing proper clothes, and their absence is unexcused. Subsequent violations “may result in additional consequences,” the handbook reads.
The principal “demanded” that the boy wear the over-shirt for the rest of the day and to “never again wear an item communicating the content of this speech,” reads the complaint.
When the boy wore the shirt to school again in January, the teacher named in the complaint pulled him aside and asked, “Do you like offending people?”
“That’s not my problem; nobody has to read my shirt,” the boy replied, according to the complaint.
The principal later met with Conrad and his son. The principal said the phrase is “code” for a vulgar expression. But Conrad said that’s not how he interprets it.
When the boy wore the shirt again on March 24, the principal gave him detention. The school sent an email to Conrad regarding the boy’s “repeated violations” of the student code of conduct, which is set by the board of education.
The complaint alleges the code is “unconstitutionally vague” and gives individual employees too much discretion in enforcing it.
It also cites a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case related to black armbands students wore while protesting the Vietnam War, which held that students don’t lose their First Amendment rights when on school property. The ruling required school administrators to determine the speech would interfere with school operations, according to the complaint.
Madison Local School District Superintendent Robert Peterson said the district became aware of the lawsuit on Wednesday. He declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday, as it’s being actively litigated.
School officials have been issued summonses, court records show. No future court dates have been set.