School Strips Teen's Pro-Life Tee-Shirt; Attorney Demands Redress
by Jim Brown
March 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Virginia public high school is being threatened with a lawsuit for telling a student that his pro-life T-shirt is equivalent to profanity. For the past two and a half years at Denbigh High School in Newport News the student has been wearing a sweatshirt that says "Abortion is Homicide. You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation. Rock For Life."
But the school's assistant principal told the pro-life teen the message on his shirt violated a school rule that prohibits students from using obscene or profane language. He was told not to wear it to school again, even though he had been doing so without incident going on three years.
Attorney Ed White of the Thomas More Law Center believes his client is being singled out because he is a Christian. He says at Denbigh High, most students are given fairly free rein to express themselves through their choice of clothing.
"In this school kids wear shirts that have marijuana leaves on it or kids will wear shirts that advertise beer, or really extreme rock bands such as Marilyn Manson, which advocates drug use and suicide, or girls will be wearing bare midriff shirts or shirts with Playboy bunny symbols on it -- none of those students are ever told 'Quit wearing that shirt.'" White says.
The attorney says his client's case is just one more example of anti-Christian discrimination in public schools. Moreover, White asserts, it is a scenario that has become all too common in public schools. In such cases, he says, "Here you have students who are generally between the ages of 14 and 18, who are taking a stand for something that is a positive stand, a stand in favor of life -- a stand in favor of their God -- and the school is trying to silence them."
And sadly, all too often, the school is successful. "A lot of these students just become quiet at that point, don't want to fight it, White says, "and I always wonder what is this kid going to be like ten or fifteen years from now. Is he or she ever going to take a stand again, or has this experience just silenced them forever?"
White has written a letter demanding that the pro-life student be allowed to wear his shirt to school and has given Denbigh High School officials until March 19 to respond.
