San Diego Student Censorship Case Given Go-Ahead

by Jim Brown
November 16, 2004

(AgapePress) - A lawsuit challenging a San Diego school district's censorship of a Christian student will go to trial.

At issue is a decision by Poway High School to suspend student Chase Harper for wearing a T-shirt displaying the messages "Homosexuality is shameful" and "Our school embraced what God has condemned." Harper wore the shirt during the school's pro-homosexual "Day of Silence" observance in April. (See Earlier Article)

On behalf of Harper, the Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal lawsuit against the district, claiming their client was suspended for expressing his religious beliefs. In response, the district sought to dismiss the trial. But a federal district court judge did not grant the district's motion for dismissal, nor did he grant Harper's motion for preliminary injunction.

ADF attorney Bob Tyler says the school violated his client's First Amendment rights. "The Constitution does not allow government to prohibit speech just because it comes from a religious perspective -- especially on a day that they are allowing speech on the same topic coming from a secular perspective," he says.

Such an attitude, in the attorney's opinion, displays a one-sided view of tolerance. "In this age of supposed tolerance, you would think the solution to differing points of view would be to encourage free speech, not restrict it," he says. "A concept of 'tolerance' that prohibits religious beliefs is indeed strange."

Tyler anticipates Harper v. Poway Unified School District will not end until he receives at least a decision from the infamous Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.