After a three-year long court battle between two girls and their Pennsylvania middle school over "I (heart) Boobies!" breast cancer awareness bracelets, the school board is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Easton Area school board voted 7-1 Tuesday night to file a petition to the highest court in the country to uphold the district's ban of the bracelets after a federal appeals court rejected the school's claim that bracelets are lewd.
"The Third Circuit Court has compromised administrators' abilities to intervene in what is and what is not appropriate in school," superintendent John Reinhart said.
The fight began in 2010 when two middle school students—Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, then 12 and 13 years old—were suspended for wearing the bracelets (which had been banned) on the school's Breast Cancer Awareness Day. They filed a suit with the help of the ACLU, and they won. And continued to win, through a series of appeals.
"I think we should be done with it. Let it go. We lost 20, 30 times, I don’t even know anymore," said Frank Pintabone, the lone board member who voted against the decision.
The district said that many organizations are backing their decision to take the case to the Supreme Court, like he National Association of School Psychologists, the National School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania School Board Association. The school reiterated its claim that its "concerned about the implications of a hyper-sexualized environment" that the bracelets could cause.