ADF Celebrates Oregon High School Student's Free-Speech Victory
by Jim Brown
June 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A high school in Oregon has apologized to a student for censoring her Christian view on homosexuality.
Last April, an official at Springfield High School ordered several Christian students on campus to remove the T-shirts they were wearing on the "National Day of Truth," an event designed to counter the promotion of homosexuality in schools. The T-shirts contained the message "I am a Christian, and I am against homosexuality, abortion, pre-marital sex, and drugs."
After her shirt was banned, one sophomore contacted the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a pro-family legal organization. ADF then sent a letter to school officials, arguing that the student's free-speech rights were being violated. Springfield High School later apologized to the teen girl, saying she and other students will be allowed to wear their Christian T-shirts in the future.
ADF litigation counsel Tim Chandler says he is pleased the issue has been resolved. However, the attorney notes, it is discouraging that many school officials are still unaware of students' free-speech rights. He says the school officials felt the Day of Truth T-shirt message was negative and felt they needed to suppress it.
"So often school officials are trying to create this perfect, politically correct campus," Chandler laments, "but in doing so they end up censoring students, and they squelch any kind of debate on these issues on campus." However, he contends that the law is clear on this issue.
"The Supreme Court has said schools have the right to censor student speech only if it's disruptive, only if it's vulgar, only if it's lewd -- those kinds of things," the ADF lawyer explains. "Those are the standards that schools need to be adhering to," he says. "They can't ban speech just because they don't agree with it or because it might be a little controversial."
Chandler notes that students celebrating the pro-homosexual "Day of Silence" event on Springfield High School's campus this year were not prohibited from expressing their support for the homosexual agenda. He says ADF applauds officials at the school who realized they cannot censor students based on their viewpoint, particularly when students promoting an opposing view are permitted to express their opinions freely.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
