Judge rules against teen’s anarchy club

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 1, 2001

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge ruled Thursday that a 15-year-old sophomore cannot form an anarchy club or wear T-shirts opposing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, because it would disrupt the school.

Katie Sierra was suspended from Sissonville High School for three days for promoting the club. She was also told she could not wear T-shirts with messages such as "When I saw the dead and dying Afghan children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God bless America."

In a complaint filed with her mother, the teen-ager argued that her right to free speech was being denied.

Circuit Court Judge James Stucky agreed that free speech is "sacred," but he found that such rights are "tempered by the limitations that they … not disrupt the educational process."

Katie Sierra said she will pursue the dispute.

"I don’t want war. I’m not for Afghanistan," she said. "I think that what we’re doing to them is just as bad as what they did to us, and I think it needs to be stopped."

James Withrow, lawyer for the Kanawha County Board of Education, argued that an anarchy club was inappropriate because students "do not feel that their school is a safe place anymore."

"Anarchy is the antithesis of what we believe should be in schools," Withrow said.

Katie Sierra’s attorney, Roger Forman, said she is "being punished for expressing her opinion."

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