In court, the very self-possessed and very serious students testified that the word is not offensive when used in the context of breast cancer, and that banning the bracelets violated their right to free speech.
The school district said other students might consider the word vulgar, and girls' wearing the bracelets could inadvertently encourage bad behavior by their male classmates.
"They can be very offensive to someone who walks up and says, 'I love your boobies,' " said Angela DiVeitro, the principal of Easton Area Middle School, located east of Allentown. "They can view it as sexual harassment, and I have to make sure the kids are not being sexually harassed in my school." But no disturbance connected to the bracelets occurred before they were banned, she said under questioning.
DiVeitro explained that she had forbidden other questionable items, including Hooters jerseys and Big Pecker's Bar & Grill T-shirts from the Ocean City, Md., establishment of the same name.
Testifying before Judge Mary McLaughlin, the students described their confrontation with school administrators and discussed whether even the best-intentioned use of boobies could prompt a 13-year-old boy to reflect on something other than cancer awareness.
The school district lawyer with the task of quizzing the girls - one 13, the other 12, - was John E. Freund III. He tried hard to be gentlemanly about it.
"That phrase, 'I love boobies,' do you see any other meaning to that? Say, especially from boys' perspective?" Freund asked 13-year-old Brianna Hawk.
"No," Hawk said.
"Do you think boys would have a natural attraction to girls' breasts?" Freund asked.
"Yes," Hawk answered.
"So couldn't it possibly mean something else?"
