Judge: Ponce de Leon principal went on ‘witch hunt'

It cost the school district $325,000, but the court's full opinion was not released until this week. It thrashed Davis, who has since been replaced as principal.

"Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a witch hunt," wrote U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak, who blasted him for his "morality assemblies" and misunderstanding of the First Amendment.

The opinion came more than two months after Heather Gillman and the American Civil Liberties Union won a free-speech lawsuit against the Holmes County School Board, which actually was Davis' complicit "alter ego," Smoak wrote.

Gillman and the ACLU claimed Davis violated her rights by silencing all pro-gay messages. Students had begun showing support after the taunting of a gay student at school.

In response to the taunting incident, Davis told the gay student it wasn't right for her to be homosexual and held a morality assembly, according to testimony.

Then, after an investigation into the "secret society" of gay pride at school, Davis suspended several students for supporting the girl. He told one suspended student's mother "he could secretly send her daughter off to a private Christian school" and said "if there was a man in your house ... you wouldn't be having any of these gay issues," according to the court.

Davis banned rainbows, pink triangles and a number of what he called sexually suggestive slogans. The slogans included "I Support Gays" and "God Loves Me Just the Way I Am."

But Smoak noted that Davis did not ban several magazines in the school's library -- Cosmogirl, Woman's Day and others -- that contained articles about sex and dating. He also did not punish a boy for making explicit sexual advances toward a girl, an incident that occurred the same month as the morality assembly, according to testimony.

Davis hushed Gillman and others "because of his animosity toward students who were homosexual and his relentless crusade to extinguish the speech supporting them," Smoak wrote.

Advocates celebrated the court's opinion Friday.

"The atmosphere that was created at the school was so intimidating for these kids," said Chris Hampton, who worked on the case for the ACLU from the start. "It's not about everyone agreeing; it's about being able to disagree respectfully."

Smoak wrote that the court's opinion was not meant to "mandate a social norm for Holmes County or its schools," but rather to apply the Constitution to the case.

"Indeed, Davis' opinions and views are consistent with the beliefs of many in Holmes County, in Florida, and in the country," Smoak wrote.

"Where Davis went wrong was when he endeavored to silence the opinions of his dissenters," he said