A New Hampshire school district will shell out $275,000 to settle a lawsuit after it punished family members of a soccer player for wearing “XX” wristbands during a game.
The settlement also affirms the rights of spectators to quietly protest during games.
“Plaintiffs have a First Amendment right to silently wear pink wristbands bearing the XX symbol on the sidelines, in the spectator’s area, or in the parking lot of any Bow District sporting event,” the declaratory judgement states.
The school district also acknowledged that it “violated Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights when it barred Plaintiffs from wearing the wristbands at the girls’ varsity soccer game on September 17, 2024.”
Controversy erupted after the plaintiffs, who included the parents and a grandparent, chose to wear the wristbands at a game two years ago. The family members did not interrupt the game, harass the gender-confused player, or otherwise cause a disturbance.
Still, school officials stepped in to violate the family members’ First Amendment rights.
As the Institute for Free Speech explained:
School officials, accompanied by a police officer, confronted them. The referee halted play until one spectator removed his wristband, and school officials later issued trespass orders barring [the plaintiffs] from school grounds, preventing them from attending their children’s games and other school activities for a time.
While First Amendment jurisprudence does allow for school district officials to regulate speech when it could cause a “material disruption,” attorneys failed to argue that the spectators were causing trouble.
