Student wins two-year battle to wear 'I heart boobies' bracelet to school

• Sara Dickinson wore the rubber wrist band after her grandmother died from breast cancer in 2010
• Officials from the Nathan Hale-Ray High School told the Connecticut teenager the bracelet was disruptive
• The ACLU wrote to the school in August, claiming the ban was a violation of the teenager's right to free speech
• 'I could see how [the bracelet] could be distracting but my rationale was that kids in my school walk around with hair that is absolutely neon pink,' the now high school senior said

By Leslie Larson

PUBLISHED: 08:54 EST, 1 October 2012 | UPDATED: 10:26 EST, 1 October 2012

A high school senior has won the right to wear her 'I ♥ Boobies (Keep a Breast)' bracelet to school - after a two year battle with administrators who complained the accessory was disruptive. 

Sara Dickinson, whose grandmother died from breast cancer, was threatened with detention and even a court injunction after she wore the jewelry to support cancer awareness during her sophomore year at Nathan Hale-Ray High School in East Haddam, Connecticut.

The high schooler enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Connecticut, who said the school was denying the teenager her First Amendment right to free speech.

The little bracelet that started this war: Sara Dickinson displays the rubber wrist band that prompted a two year struggle with her school

According to Dickinson, she bought the $4 rubber wrist band from The Keep A Breast Foundation, a youth-focused cancer advocacy group during her sophomore year.

But after wearing the bracelet for a few months in 2010, she faced resistance and was told by her school principal, Eric Spencer, that she could no longer bring it to school because it was disruptive to students.

'I could see how [the bracelet] could be distracting but my rationale was that kids in my school walk around with hair that is absolutely neon pink,' Dickinson told The Hartford Courant, adding, 'I really feel that neon pink hair is much more distracting than a white bracelet.'

She relented and stopped wearing the bracelet but after a friend's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she began wearing it again to school. This time it was confiscated on two occasions and she was threatened with detention.

Stand up to cancer: Sara Dickinson shows off the offending bracelet (left). Various versions of the wrist band were sold by The Keep A Breast Foundation, which works to mobilize youth to raise awareness for cancer

Dickinson said that school officials presented a compromise last June, offering to let students design a similar bracelet but with different language. She added that the school said they would seek an injunction to prohibit her from wearing the wrist band at school if she persisted.

Dickinson rejected this offer and instead contacted the ACLU for guidance.

The advocacy group wrote to the Connecticut school in early August, saying that a student's right to free speech still must be protected within the confines of school property, citing a Supreme Court case from 1969 - Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

The letter further explained that limits on a child's speech is only justified if the language threatens to 'materially or substantially interfere with ... the operations of the school' or if it is deemed 'vulgar and lewd,' according to another case in 1986, Bethel School Dis. No. 403 v. Fraser.

Disruptive? The teenager says she doesn't think her bracelet is as disruptive of some of the odd fashions she sees high schoolers sporting

In 2011, a Pennsylvania School District similarly objected to the 'I ♥ Boobies (Keep a Breast)' tagline and a group of female students from the area have been embroiled in a back-and-forth legal battle.

A federal judge ruled in April that the ban, on the grounds the language is lewd, vulgar or sexually offensive, was unconstitutional. The school district has appealed the decision and arguments are expected to be heard in early 2013.

Given the legal precedence, the ACLU requested that the Connecticut school district rethink their policy forbidding Dickinson and other students from wearing the bracelet.

Not on school grounds: Officials at the Nathan Hale-Ray High School (pictured) in East Haddam, Connecticut told Sara Dickinson that her bracelet was disruptive to students

After receiving the letter, the school reached out to Dickinson's mother, Terry, informing her that Sara could resume wearing her bracelet to school.

'It's nice to know somebody is going to let me exercise my rights,' Dickinson told the local paper, adding, 'The whole point was to get everybody talking, to raise awareness of breast cancer.'

The ACLU was similarly celebrating the victory.

'The school district has made the right decision. Public school students have free speech rights that can't be violated merely because school officials dislike the message or the way it's expressed,' Sandra Staub, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said in a statement.

'While restrictions can be placed on speech that threatens a substantial disruption in the school or on speech that is so lewd and vulgar as to undermine the educational mission, Sara's bracelet caused no such harm,' she added.