The justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling from August that found the bracelets were not "plainly lewd," nor had they caused a disruption. The lower court sided with two students who sued the Easton Area School District in 2010 with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Easton is one of several school districts around the country to ban the bracelets, which are distributed by the nonprofit Keep A Breast Foundation of Carlsbad, Calif.
"The principle here is that even kids talk about important things, and when they talk about important things, that's what we should be encouraging," Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said Monday. "Kids should be able to talk about things that matter to them in language that is both respectful and familiar to them."
The district's solicitor, John Freund, said he was disappointed the Supreme Court won't hear the case.
The ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "robs educators and school boards of the ability to strike a reasonable balance between a student's right to creative expression" and districts' responsibility to make sure schools are "free from sexual entendre and vulgarity," Freund said.
Groups representing school boards, superintendents and principals had supported Easton's appeal.
