The Manteca Unified School District in California finally agreed to change its dress cody policy Tuesday, after settling a free speech lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Northern California on behalf of high school junior Taylor Victor, who was sent home in August for wearing a t-shirt that read "Nobody knows I'm a lesbian."

Victor told several local news outlets at the time that she wore the shirt ironically, because she has always been open about her sexuality.

The shirt "made me laugh because pretty much everybody knows I'm a lesbian," she wrote in a blog post for the ACLU of Northern California.

She was asked to change, however, by administrators who claimed the shirt was "disruptive," an "open invitation to sex," possibly "gang-related," and indicative of her "personal choices and beliefs," all things that violate Sierra High School's dress code.

Though the district denies any wrongdoing, it changed the dress code to specifically acknowledge that students are allowed to wear clothing supportive of their or their classmates' race, gender, religion, and/or sexual orientation.

"The law is very clear on this point: that public schools cannot prohibit or sensor students from displaying their beliefs," said ACLU Attorney Linnea Nelson.

Think Progress reports:

Settlements like these are important because they show administrators that attempts to restrict LGBT students’ pride in their identities, and allies’ support of their identities, are not legally feasible. Although administrators attempt to use the popular claim that LGBT-themed T-shirts are “disruptive,” since disruption to student learning has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case as a legitimate reason for limiting student expression, it usually can’t be applied in this scenario. It could be seen as discriminating against a certain point of view if other messages are allowed on T-shirts, and it is becoming more difficult for administrators to argue a shirt supporting LGBT people is actually disruptive.

Along with the change to its dress code, the Manteca Unified School District also agreed to pay $63,000 in ACLU attorney fees and costs, as well as $1 to Victor.

"I’m very proud of who I am," she wrote. “That’s the whole reason I wore that shirt. And it’s the reason I’ll keep wearing it — because after months of fighting this censorship battle, we won."