Posted by
ProudAmericanJesusFreak on Saturday, November 08, 2008 12:38:13 PM
School settles over pro-life T-shirts
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 11/8/2008 4:10:00 AM
The Thomas More Law Center has claimed victory in a case in which school officials violated a student's free-speech rights.
Center
attorney Brian Rooney says the 12-year-old sixth-grader in Hutchinson,
Minnesota, wore pro-life T-shirts, designed by the American Life
League, to declare his belief that abortion robs an innocent person of
life and is an offense to God.
"He had a plan to wear them for a month straight, and he did wear them
for a month straight," Rooney explains. "But during that month, he was
continually and constantly harassed by teachers and the principal,
constantly pointing him out in the classroom and in the cafeteria and
in other places, telling him to turn his shirt inside out, not to wear
the shirt again."
In a press release by the Thomas More Law Center,
a national public-interest law firm whose services are free of charge,
Rooney contends the school threatened the student with suspension if he
kept wearing the pro-life T-shirts. However, the threats violate the
school's policy on free speech.
"The school has a written policy that allows children to wear these
types of messages," Rooney adds. "It says [students may wear them] as
long as the messages do not cause a disturbance in the classrooms."
The only disturbance, according to Rooney, was caused by the teachers
and principal. School district officials did allow pro-homosexual
students to wear T-shirts representing the Day of Silence held each
year to promote acceptance of the lifestyle. Thomas More Law Center
filed a lawsuit, but the school district has settled out of court and
will permit pro-life T-shirts.
The Laws Center celebrates its ability to vindicate the student's
constitutional rights and calls it a great victory for both the
pro-life movement and First Amendment rights.