WAYNESVILLE, OH – A high school student filed suit last week in federal court after school officials prohibited him from wearing a T-shirt containing the message “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe.” The lawsuit of student Maverick Couch, was filed on April 3 in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, and asks that the student be permitted to wear his shirt to school during the April 20 National Day of Silence, an event that draws attention to the national epidemic of bullying and its effect of silencing of gay and lesbian students.

In the suit, Couch, 17, claims that last spring he was repeatedly refused permission by school Principal Randy Gebhardt to wear the T-shirt during the 2011 Day of Silence on the grounds that it was “indecent and sexual in nature.” The T-shirt depicts the image of a fish—which bears similarities to religious iconography used by Christians—painted in rainbow colors. Below the fish are the words “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe.”

“I don’t think the shirt is sexual at all. I don’t know how they can say that,” Couch said. “I don’t think it’s indecent.” He noted that other students routinely wear religious-themed shirts that include Bible verses.

The student’s attorney, Christopher Clark, said his client attempted for months to settle things with school officials, but that they refused to compromise. Couch was first told by administrators that the T-shirt was disruptive, but later claimed that it was too religious. Clark says that officials now say the shirt violates regulations that prohibit indecent clothing or items that are sexual in nature. He says that he is aware of only two student complaints about Couch wearing the T-shirt.

The suit draws renewed attention to the ongoing balance of students’ First Amendment rights and the responsibility of school authorities to impose discipline and enforce regulations.

In the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District Supreme Court decision, Justice Abe Fortas wrote for the 7 to 2 majority that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

But students’ rights are not absolute, and the courts have also ruled that school administrators are permitted to prohibit speech that is seriously disruptive, and that they may likewise censor materials in school newspapers that detail sensitive subjects.