November 3, 2009 To be sure, the thoughtful young middle school student at Crossroads Middle School in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania wants to be conscientious and cooperative with his teachers and school officials. He's just not willing to give them the shirt off his back.
The shirt administrators specifically asked him to remove bears a message, "
Abortion is not Healthcare." The boy wore it to school on September 8, the day his class was directed to listen to President Barack Obama's public video address to students around the country. Although lots of other children come to the school every day wearing all manner of t-shirts bearing all kinds of messages, this one, officials said, was "inappropriate," and "might insult somebody."
On October 5, Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed
a lawsuit against the West Shore School District, challenging several problematic policies the school has used to selectively dictate what messages students can and can't communicate via clothing. The "student expression" policy, for instance, prohibits speech that "seek[s] to establish the supremacy of a particular religious denomination, sect, or point of view" and speech that "contain[s] material otherwise deemed harmful to impressionable students." The "dress and grooming" policy, on the other hand, prohibits "clothing which creates a hostile educational environment or evidences discriminatory bias or animus."
On Monday, October 19, a federal court
ordered the district to temporarily discontinue enforcement of these policies, pending trial. And West Shore agreed with that order, signed by the judge, permitting the student to wear both the "
Abortion is not Healthcare" shirt and "other pro-life and/or religious t-shirts."
"
Pro-life students shouldn't be censored for their views," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. "
It's clearly unconstitutional to prohibit a student's message on the grounds that someone might not like it. That's why we're pleased that school district officials are willing to halt enforcement of these flawed policies while this lawsuit goes forward. This will allow students to appropriately exercise their First Amendment rights during the course of litigation."
ADF-allied attorney Randall Wenger with the Independence Law Center in Harrisburg is assisting with the case,
E.B. v. West Shore School District, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Please be in prayer for these attorneys, for the judges who are ruling every day on issues that determine the meaning of freedom of speech and conscience in our nation today, and for young people like this student who still have the courage to respectfully, but firmly, speak their convictions in a free society.