Attorney: Christian Student's 'Silent Message' on Day of Silence is Protected
by Jim Brown
September 22, 2004
(AgapePress) - A federal judge is hearing a case involving a Christian student who was suspended by his California high school for wearing a T-shirt displaying the messages "Homosexuality is Shameful" and "Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned."
In early June, 16-year-old Chase Harper filed a lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District, claiming it violated his rights to free speech and free expression. Harper had worn the shirt in April during an annual pro-homosexual event known as "Day of Silence." The district argues the T-shirt amounts to "hate speech" and is disruptive to the way Poway High School functions. (See earlier story)
Attorney Jordan Lorence is with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the group representing the student in Harper v. Poway Unified School District. He believes the school district is trampling the Constitution.
"We live in a free society governed by a First Amendment that says you've got to let people speak their minds and express opinions you disagree with," Lorence explains. "The school district is not understanding that and is acting totally contrary to the First Amendment by censoring this speech with ... very strong-arm tactics that it's been using in this case."
In the attorney's opinion, the school has a one-sided view of tolerance. "This is totally hypocrisy on the part of the school district," he says, "because this was a day of silence for homosexual students, who were basically silent to express a message, and they'd hand you a little card explaining why they were silent."
Lorence contends his client's modus operandi was no different. "[T]his was also a silent message -- this was writing on a T-shirt. Chase Harper was not using a bullhorn to broadcast his message or shout at people in the hallways. It was simply a written message that people could choose to read or not read."
When confronted by a school official in April, Harper was told to "leave his faith in the car." ADF maintains the school's actions amount to unconstitutional suppression of speech. An ADF press release sums up their stance this way: "The school district wants Chase Harper to be politically correct; we want the school district to be constitutionally correct."
