Always a Proponent of Free Speech...

As reported in USA Today:

"The teachers' union for the nation's largest public school system accused the city on Friday of banning political campaign buttons and sued to reverse the policy, declaring that free speech rights were violated.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten announced at a news conference that a lawsuit had been filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to challenge the enforcement of the policy.

"We couldn't believe it," said Weingarten, who wore a Barack Obama lapel button. The American Federation of Teachers, including its UFT delegates, voted over the summer to endorse Obama's presidential candidacy."

Today, Weingarten and the UFT had a ruling against their lawsuit:

"U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said the policy by the schools of banning campaign buttons seemed to reflect a good faith judgment by the Board of Education about the impact of teachers' political campaign buttons rather than a covert attempt to favor one viewpoint over another."

I am completely devastated with this ruling. I was so hoping to have 500,000 buttons made up saying "Support Vouchers and Help Me Escape this Failing Educational System" to be distributed to all the unfortunate kids trapped in NYC's school systems.