School lets student wear lesbian pride T-shirt

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Bethany Laccone can attend I.C. Norcom High School wearing a T-shirt that depicts a lesbian pride symbol, Principal Lynn Briley said recently.

Briley’s announcement came soon after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that Norcom officials apologize to the 17-year-old student after a teacher and an assistant principal there reportedly made her cover up the shirt and requested she not wear it to school.

The organization also requested, among other things, that officials not participate in other such “censorship” and remove any disciplinary notices related to the incident from Laccone’s file.

Briley said she agreed with the ACLU that Laconne had been censored, but that no note had been placed in her file.

She said she would apologize to the student and try to meet the other demands made by the ACLU.