SAN DIEGO - A federal judge ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District that school officials can restrict student speech that expresses "damaging statements about sexual orientation" and can limit students to stating their views "in a positive manner."

U.S. District Judge John Houston reached that conclusion in a 12-page decision that affirmed a similar ruling he made a year ago in the lawsuit. The case stems from an incident in which a Poway High School student wore a T-shirt bearing a message opposed to homosexuality.

In January 2007, Houston granted the school district's request for a judgment in its favor on the legal claims that Kelsie Harper, 16 at the time, raised in the lawsuit, and dismissed Tyler Chase Harper, 18 at the time, from the case. After a series of legal challenges that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for the Harpers asked Houston to reconsider, resulting in Tuesday's ruling.

Tim Chandler, one of the attorneys for the Harpers, said they likely will appeal Houston's decision.

"Students are losing their First Amendment rights and are not allowed to share their beliefs," Chandler said.

Jack Sleeth, an attorney for the school district, said he expects the district to prevail on appeal as well. Sleeth said Houston's ruling incorporates the issue of sexual orientation into the law established in a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said students have free speech rights as long as they do not collide with or invade the rights of others and do not interfere with or disrupt the school.

As a Poway High School sophomore in 2004, Chase Harper, who goes by his middle name, wore a T-shirt to school that said "Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27" on the front and "Our school has embraced what God has condemned" on the back. He wore the shirt the day after a campus group held a "Day of Silence" to promote tolerance of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered students.

Court documents stated Chase Harper was sent to the principal's office after he refused to comply with a teacher's directions to remove the shirt. He had to remain in a conference room at the school office, where he did his homework until the end of the day because he would not remove the shirt, court documents stated.

Chase Harper alleged in his federal lawsuit that school officials violated his constitutional rights. Kelsie Harper was added to the lawsuit later, alleging that she wanted to express a message identical to her brother's through her speech or clothing, but was prevented from doing so because of school policies.

The school district argued in court documents that school officials reasonably believed the T-shirt could cause a disruption among students and violated the rights of students and employees to be free from harassment because of sexual orientation.

Houston dismissed Chase Harper from the lawsuit after he graduated from Poway High School. Kelsie Harper is in her senior year at the school, Chandler said.

Attorneys for the Harpers asked Houston to reconsider his ruling from last year because the U.S. Supreme Court set aside an appeals court decision upon which Houston relied in making the earlier ruling.

The school district's attorneys did not oppose having the judge reconsider the case, but urged Houston to apply a U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated student speech lawsuit to the Harper case. The nation's highest court ruled last year that school officials can restrict student speech that can be interpreted as advocating the use of illegal drugs.

Houston wrote that the legal reasoning from that case supported a conclusion that the Harpers' speech "may properly be restricted by school officials if it is considered harmful."

The district properly restricted the "negative speech" on Harper's T-shirt for the legitimate educational concern of "promoting tolerance and respect for differences among students," Houston wrote.

The T-shirt incident that spawned the Harpers' lawsuit was not a factor in the Poway school district's adoption Monday night of a policy to deter hate behavior and harassment, Sleeth said.

The revised policy arose in the wake of four racially related incidents last fall, including a noose hung in the boys bathroom at Poway High School and backstage in Rancho Bernardo High School's theater, where racial epithets also were written.

Nevertheless, problems related to sexual orientation issues have occurred at schools in the district in the past.

In documents filed in the Harper case, the district's attorneys said school officials were mindful of tensions that arose on campus after a "Day of Silence" event in 2003.

In 2005, a Superior Court jury in San Diego awarded two former Poway High School students a combined total of $300,000 after deciding that school officials failed to stop ongoing harassment they suffered because of their sexual orientation. The district has appealed that verdict, and the case is pending at the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego.

- Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.