School Pays In Redneck Suit
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP,N.J.- You’re probably not a redneck if you stand to get more than $500,000 in legal fees from your former school district.
That’s what a federal magistrate has ordered the Warren Hills Regional School District to pay a former student who fought his 2001 suspension for wearing a shirt that listed reasons someone might be considered a redneck sports fan.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni determined the district is responsible for $574,245 in legal fees incurred by the family of Thomas Sypniewski Jr. to fight his suspension.
The amount doesn’t include fees paid by the school district to its lawyers, and the district could end up paying nearly $1 million, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Tuesday’s newspapers.
The school district suspended Mr. Sypniewski, then a high school senior and now 23, for three days for wearing the shirt.
