Five students given eight-day suspensions for protesting the controversial cancellation of an Indigo Girls concert at Irmo High School in Irmo, S.C., were denied a preliminary injunction in South Carolina Federal District Court on Wednesday (May 13).

The students were seeking to be readmitted to classes, claiming that their suspensions were an attack on their right to free speech.

The plaintiffs filed as a group, with Carl A. "Andy" Brumme III, American Civil Liberties Union staff counsel in Columbia, S.C., acting as their attorney. The results of their individual appeals on the school-district level are due to be released on Thursday (May 14) -- day six of their eight-day suspensions.

The concert -- one of several Indigo Girls appearances scheduled in an April and May tour of Southern high schools and universities -- was canceled three weeks ago in response to community concern over the Grammy-winning duo's homosexuality, their lyrics and the appropriateness of their appearing at a school assembly. Following a protest of the cancellation, 12 students were suspended. Only five elected to appeal their suspensions and take legal action.

According to court documents, Chester Hicks and the parents of Megan Collier, Carla Gray, Katlin Spangler and Elizabeth Carney all filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Dennis McMahon, superintendent of School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties, and Gerald Witt, principal of Irmo High School. The injunction sought to keep McMahon and Witt from suspending the students for disobeying the orders of an administrator because they allegedly were only asked to return to class and not ordered to do so. The motion stated that the students did not attend second-period classes last Thursday in order to protest Witt's cancellation of the Indigo Girls concert, which was supposed to happen that day. They instead peacefully assembled on the school grounds and returned to the school building at the beginning of third-period classes after speaking with a teacher. At this point, the petition states, the students were led into a conference room and were later told that they were being suspended from school for eight days for failure to obey a direct order of an administrator.

The students, the petition continues, were well aware that skipping class would lead to a Saturday detention but feel that these suspensions are a violation of their liberties as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

"[E]ven if there had been [an order]," the motion reads, "the order was to stop protesting, to not exercise a fundamental right."

Reached in his Columbia, S.C., office after Wednesday's hearing, Brumme said he was disappointed in the decision of Judge Michael Patrick Duffy to deny the students an injunction. "The judge looked at it as more of a discipline issue than a free-speech issue," Brumme explained. "Our argument wasn't that schools cannot discipline students; our argument was that the principal cannot issue a directive to the students to no longer exercise their First Amendment rights."

In Knoxville, Tenn., three students who each served a three-day suspension for protesting their principal's decision to call off the Indigo Girls show scheduled for their school last week have decided to not appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, School District Five spokesperson Buddy Price said Tuesday that eight Irmo students were given eight-day suspensions because they disobeyed the direct order of the principal, two were given lesser suspensions of two to three days because it was determined that they were involved in lesser offenses, and the cases of two other students are still being examined. Of the eight given the eight-day suspensions, Price said, only five have taken the process this far, with the other three electing to serve their suspensions.

Though he had no comment about the students filing suit, Price did say that administrators were adhering to policy. "We are treating these students just as we would any other student," he explained. "We have these policies spelled out and we are going by the book."

Before the students got to this stage, they followed the district policy that allowed for a face-to-face meeting with their parents and the principal. When Witt refused to budge following these meetings, they filed this motion while taking the appeals process to the next step -- a meeting with a district hearing officer.

The final hearings with the district hearing officer are scheduled for Thursday (May 14).

According to Tommy Collier Jr., a U.S. history teacher at Irmo High School and parent of student-protester Megan Collier, the district hearing officer decided late Wednesday (May 13) afternoon to issue her decisions on all the students' appeals on Thursday (May 14) afternoon, a move that he is really upset about. "This means that by the time the decision on the appeal comes through, my daughter will have almost served all eight days of the suspension," Tommy Collier explained. "I'm a U.S. history teacher and I always teach that we are guaranteed due process and are innocent until proven guilty, but these students have been judged and sentenced before their trial. If they were found innocent, which I don't think they will be, how would they make up those days?"

For her part, 16-year-old Megan Collier is upset that this unexpected suspension has caused her to fall behind on her schoolwork, but she is otherwise satisfied with her participation in the protests. "I don't regret what I did and neither do the people who did this. I still feel good that we walked out."

And so does her proud father. "I couldn't be more proud of her, even if she won the Nobel Prize," Tommy Collier said. "She stood up for what she believed in and has been articulate through the whole process."