To: Carolyn who wrote (370 ) 3/27/2003 5:01:36 PM From: Tech Master Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 495 A new addition: Suit Filed Over Student's Anti-Iraq War T-Shirt DETROIT (Reuters) - A Detroit-area school was hit with a lawsuit on Thursday for prohibiting a student anti-war protester from wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of President Bush (news - web sites) and the words "International Terrorist." The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) said the suit, filed in federal court, alleged that the constitutional rights of Bretton Barber had been violated by Dearborn High School when it ordered him to either wear the T-shirt inside out or go home on Feb. 17. Dearborn High School Superintendent John Artis declined to comment on the suit involving Barber, who is a junior at the school and chose to go home on the day of the reprimand. "I have no information," Artis told Reuters, saying other school officials would also be unable to comment. But Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU's Michigan branch, said that instead of being open to debate and discussion Dearborn High School "chose to ban political speech." In a statement Barber, who has refrained from wearing the anti-Bush T-shirt to school since Feb. 17, said he felt vindicated by publicity over his protest against the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites). "The shirt was meant to emphasize the message 'no war' and I feel that I've been successful in getting that message out," he said. "I think it's especially important for students who may be asked to fight at some point, to have the right to say how we feel." Michigan is home to one of the largest concentrations of Arabs outside the Middle East and Dearborn has a flourishing community of Iraqi exiles.