School district loses its (T-)shirt Warren Hills must pay ex-student's legal fees in 'redneck' case Tuesday, June 20, 2006 • BY MIKE FRASSINELLI • Star-Ledger Staff Disciplining a student for wearing a $5 T-shirt five years ago could end up costing the Warren Hills Regional School District close to $1 million. The Warren County district has been ordered to pay nearly $600,000 in plaintiffs' legal fees incurred during the 5-year-old free speech rights battle over whether a high school student could wear his "redneck" T-shirt. That tally does not include the amount the district has paid its own lawyers. Thomas Sypniewski Jr. was suspended for three days during his senior year in 2001 for wearing a T-shirt that listed blue-collar comedian Jeff Foxworthy's Top 10 reasons someone might be considered a redneck sports fan (Reason No. 4: Your bowling team has its own fight song). District officials said the T-shirt violated the high school's anti-harassment policy, enforced in the wake of racial incidents in which students referring to themselves as "Hicks" and "Rednecks" harassed black students. Sypniewski, now 23, dropped his lawsuit against the district last month, saying he was working as a union carpenter and had moved on with his life. He maintained, however, that he wore the shirt simply because he thought it was funny. Foxworthy, whose catch phrase is, "You might be a redneck if ... ," makes fun of his roots in the rural South with references to tattoo parlors that have financing plans and to a friend who brought beer to a job interview. The $5 T-shirt stirred a national debate over free speech rights, as First Amendment experts and Foxworthy himself weighed in on the topic. And now the garment has gotten exponentially more expensive. U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni has determined Warren Hills was responsible for $574,245 in legal fees incurred by Sypniewski's family to fight the suspension and school ruling. Sypniewski's New York attorney, Gerald Walpin, said the former student never wanted more than an apology and the freedom to wear the shirt. Walpin said he went "on bended knee," begging the district not to force Sypniewski's family to have to bring a lawsuit. "If the school board had accepted our advice from the beginning, there would have been no lawsuit and no legal fees," Walpin said yesterday. "But, for whatever reason, the school board refused to listen to us as to the merits of our case. They caused what happened." School officials have maintained their actions controlled the racially charged atmosphere in 2001. Last month, Superintendent Peter Merluzzi proclaimed Sypniewski's dropping of the lawsuit "a complete victory" for the district. School board President James T. Momary said given the racial tensions at the time, the district determined the fight over the T-shirt was one worth making. "We felt we owed it to a minority that was being picked on, to stand up for them," Momary said last night. "Our job as board members is to guarantee the safety of our kids. It also is to show them the right thing to do." The board is scheduled to meet tonight and could discuss what recourse the district, which has an annual budget of around $30 million, might have, Momary said. He called the amount awarded the plaintiffs "ludicrous." The plaintiffs -- Sypniewski and two younger brothers who have since graduated -- had sought $710,871 in attorneys' fees, saying the civil action was undertaken to protect their First Amendment rights. While agreeing the plaintiffs were the "prevailing party," Bongiovanni determined that, based on the average rates for law partners and associates listed in a fall publication of the New Jersey Law Journal, the school district should pay plaintiffs' fees in the amount of $574,245. The lion's share of the calculation included $224,462 for Walpin -- $394 per hour for just under 570 hours Mike Frassinelli covers Warren County. He may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.