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A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that a school district did not deprive a fourth-grade student of his constitutional rights when it barred him from wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey to a Minnesota Vikings party.
Rocky Sonkowsky and his father, Roy, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the New Prague School District in December 2000, alleging that his right to freedom of expression was violated.
The district court found against the Sonkowskys and they appealed. On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the lower court.
The lawsuit said Rocky, who was a 9-year-old attending New Prague Intermediate School, was barred from a party at the Vikings headquarters in Eden Prairie in 1999 because he wanted to wear his Packers jersey.
The district denied punishing Rocky for cheering for the Packers. Instead, according to court records, the boy's teachers cited his 25 behavioral deficiencies in previous months, his increasingly disruptive behavior and their concern that he would embarrass the school with disrespectful behavior
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Rocky Sonkowsky and his father, Roy, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the New Prague School District in December 2000, alleging that his right to freedom of expression was violated.
The district court found against the Sonkowskys and they appealed. On Monday, a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the lower court.
The lawsuit said Rocky, who was a 9-year-old attending New Prague Intermediate School, was barred from a party at the Vikings headquarters in Eden Prairie in 1999 because he wanted to wear his Packers jersey.
The district denied punishing Rocky for cheering for the Packers. Instead, according to court records, the boy's teachers cited his 25 behavioral deficiencies in previous months, his increasingly disruptive behavior and their concern that he would embarrass the school with disrespectful behavior
more
