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Please check out today's first post about Repent America. This new post just came in a few minutes ago:

Breaking - Judge OKs limits on student speech in Poway case

By: North County Times

SAN DIEGO ---- A federal judge ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District that school officials can restrict student speech that expresses "damaging statements about sexual orientation" and can limit students to stating their views "in a positive manner."

U.S. District Judge John Houston reached that conclusion in a 12-page decision that affirmed a similar ruling he made a year ago. In January 2007, Houston granted the school district's request for a judgment in its favor on the legal claims Kelsie Harper, 16 at the time, raised in the lawsuit, and dismissed Tyler Chase Harper, 18 at the time, from the case.

The elder Harper, who goes by his middle name, alleged in the federal lawsuit that the district and school officials violated his constitutional rights in their response to him wearing a T-shirt to school in 2004 that said "Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27."

Kelsie Harper was added to the lawsuit later, alleging that she wanted to express an identical message through her speech or clothing, but was prevented from doing so because of school policies.

Court documents stated Chase Harper was sent to the principal's office after he refused to comply with a teacher's directions to remove the shirt. He had to remain in a conference room at the school office, where he did his homework until the end of the day because he would not remove the shirt, court documents stated.

The district argued in court documents that school officials reasonably believed the T-shirt could cause a disruption among students and violated the rights of students and employees to be free from harassment because of sexual orientation.

Chase Harper was dismissed from the lawsuit because he already has graduated from Poway High School.

Attorneys for the Harpers asked Houston to reconsider his ruling from last year because the U.S. Supreme Court set aside an appeals court decision upon which Houston relied in making the earlier ruling.

The school district's attorneys urged Houston to apply a U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated student speech case to the Harper case. The nation's highest court ruled last year that school officials can restrict student speech that can be interpreted as advocating the use of illegal drugs.

Houston wrote that the legal reasoning from that case supported a conclusion that the Harpers' speech "may properly be restricted by school officials if it is considered harmful."

The district properly restricted the "negative speech" on Harper's T-shirt for the legitimate educational concern of "promoting tolerance and respect for differences among students," Houston wrote.