Pa. school district upset by team’s ‘I Can’t Breathe’ shirts
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UNIONTOWN (AP) – A Western Pennsylvania school district is considering disciplining girls basketball players for wearing T-shirts with the words “I Can’t Breathe.”
The Uniontown Area players wore the shirts during pregame warmups Monday. About 15 people in the stands also wore them.
They show the last words of Eric Garner, the unarmed black man who died last summer after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold.
School director Susan Clay tells Friday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review she didn’t think it was the “time and place for such a political stunt.”
She says players didn’t get permission to deviate from district-issued gear.
Legal scholars say courts have been upholding students’ free speech rights since the Vietnam War era.