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Web posted April 3, 1998

Editor, The Chronicle:

I am amazed at Greenbrier High School's decision to suspend Mike Cameron for wearing a Pepsi shirt to school on Coke Day.This is an obvious breach of his First Amendment right to express his opinion through symbolic speech.

In Columbia County, all students must take a government class where they study, among other things, their First Amendment rights. In this class, we have been taught about a group of students that wore black arm bands to school to protest the Vietnam War and were suspended. In this case (Tinker v. Des Moines School District), the Supreme Court overturned the suspension because it violated their First Amendment rights. How, then was Mike Cameron supposed to know that he would be suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt to school, even though the school teaches that this form of speech is appropriate?

It seems the principal was so concerned about the $500 this kid could have kept the school from winning ... that she forgot about his constitutional rights.

In response to Tom Dorhmann's remark that, ``(Mike Cameron's) behavior was inappropriate and disruptive,'' isn't it inappropriate and disruptive for a school to distract from students' education by allowing company representatives to speak during classes and take a schoolwide picture? ...

Robert Stolworthy, Evans