Girl Says School Violated Her Rights : Dress code: A 15-year-old, citing the First Amendment, files a $50,000 claim against the district that suspended her for the typeface on her shirt.

A 15-year-old girl has filed a $50,000 claim against the Burbank school district for suspending her because the sweat shirt she fashioned to mourn a slain classmate was imprinted with Old English-style letters that school officials regard as gang symbols.

In the claim filed on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, Burbank High School student Monica Marquez said her First Amendment right to free speech was violated, and she was humiliated when she was suspended from 10th-grade classes for two days in December.

ACLU attorney Carol A. Sobel said Monica is not a gang member, and the sweat shirt she wore actually carried an anti-gang message.

If the district declines to pay the damage claim, Monica could then file a lawsuit.

On Dec. 19, Monica wore to school a sweat shirt memorializing a classmate who was shot to death three months earlier. Printed on it was: “In Memory of Kenny Caldera, In Christ Hands Now.”

Kenny was not a gang member but apparently was killed by gang members who mistook him for one, police have said. The Burbank High football team dedicated the past season to his memory.

But Sobel said the printing on the sweat shirt, which Monica had made at the Glendale Galleria, was in Old English letters--a style that school officials told Monica and her mother is often used by gang members on shirts and hats.

Acting under the authority of a student dress policy, school officials sent Monica home for two days when she refused to turn the sweat shirt inside out.

Sobel said the policy does not specifically address lettering on students’ clothing.

“The policy violates the First Amendment because it is so vague,” Sobel said. “If they are going to have a dress code, they have to have written rules, and they don’t.”

Arthur N. Pierce, superintendent of the Burbank Unified School District, said the claim for damages is being reviewed by an attorney for the district.

Pierce said the district’s dress policy allows each school to adopt its own rules related to gang activity, because local administrators are more likely to be familiar with the gangs in their schools. Though Burbank High has no written rules specifically addressing lettering styles, the district policy allowed school officials to suspend Monica, he said.

“This is the first time an issue was raised” over the policy, Pierce said. “We believe the policy reflects both the law and the expectations of the community.”

Monica said Friday she believes she has been unfairly treated by the school.

“Kenny was killed by gang members. Why would I want to put something on my shirt that was gang-related?” she asked. “He was my friend, and everyone in the school loved him. This was for him. Not them. His sister goes there, so there was no way I would turn it inside out.”

Monica’s mother, Ruth Cisneros, said she contacted the ACLU because she was angered by her daughter’s suspension and worried that having a suspension on her school record would hurt her when she applies to colleges in a few years.

“I was shocked,” Cisneros said. “My daughter is not in a gang. I went with her when she got it. We thought that was the nicest looking writing. Even Disneyland uses it on some of its signs.”

Cisneros said the message on the sweat shirt was clearly meant to be anti-gang. She said it was simply a young girl’s way of expressing sorrow over the loss of her friend. She said that, when she complained to district officials, they told her they were not objecting to the message, only the type.

“How can they object to a typeface and not the message?” Cisneros said. “Only words can make a statement.”

Almost all schools have student dress codes, and many, particularly in the Los Angeles area, address the wearing of clothing that denotes gang membership or that could incite gang violence. But in this case, Sobel said, school officials were relying on a policy that sets out no specific rules about clothing.

“This is a particularly vague dress code,” she said.

Sobel pointed out that the front pages of U.S. Supreme Court rulings are printed in Old English type, meaning that, if Monica tried to wear a shirt to school that depicted one of the court’s rulings, “she would be prohibited.”