Teen Punished for Speaking Against Homosexuality Wants Apology

by Jim Brown
April 30, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Christian student is asking his Boone, North Carolina, high school to apologize for censoring his opposition to a pro-homosexual event on campus.

Watauga High School in Boone recently gave 17-year-old Mark Austin a one-day suspension for wearing a T-shirt inscribed with Bible verses and the words, "Homosexuality is sin, hell is real, Jesus is the answer! Shout for joy!"

Principal Gary Childers told Austin the shirt violated a school policy that prohibits clothing that is "offensive to another gender." But Austin says God convicted him to speak out against the school's participation in the recent annual homosexual "Day of Silence" because there is "a shortage of Christian boldness in this nation."

Austin feels that all too often the very people that "really want to stand up for Jesus and have a huge impact in the community" are the ones most often muzzled and subjected to discrimination. "It just seems that Christians who believe the Bible and really, truly believe in God's Word [are] the ones getting silenced in public affairs," he says, adding, "We're the ones getting kicked around; we're the ones being made an example of."

The young believer feels the incident at Watauga is emblematic of the anti-Christian discrimination that is taking place in schools across the U.S. He contends that, all over the country, the God of the Bible has been kicked out of the public schools, and instead "they've adopted the religion of secular humanism. That's pretty much the religion of school systems now, whether they want to admit it or not."

Austin says if Watauga High School does not revoke his suspension and acknowledge that it has discriminated against him for expressing his beliefs, he plans on filing a lawsuit to uphold his First Amendment rights.