Pro-Family Legal Defender Helps Student Fight NC School's Viewpoint Discrimination
by Jim Brown
September 5, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A pro-family law firm is seeking injunctive relief for a North Carolina high school student who was punished by school officials for expressing biblical opposition to homosexuality.
Midway High School in Dunn, North Carolina, suspended Benjamin Arthurs for distributing religious flyers regarding the "Day of Truth," an event where Christian students share a biblical perspective on the homosexual agenda. However, the school allowed other students to distribute flyers on three different occasions for the "Day of Silence," an event promoting homosexuality in schools.
Arthurs' attorney, David Cortman of the Alliance Defense Fund, says he has filed a motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of his client. "We have asked for two things," Cortman explains. "Number one, obviously, we have asked for the suspension to be removed," he says, "but, in addition to that, [we have asked the court to declare] that Benjamin has the right to distribute religious leaflets and to wear religious T-shirts at school without facing punishment."
Sampson County Schools Superintendent Stewart Hobbs claims Arthurs was trying to push his religious beliefs on others and thus violated the so-called separation of church and state. But Cortman believes it is the school officials who, in barring Arthurs' literature based on its religious viewpoint and punishing the student for expressing his beliefs, are guilty of violating the Constitution of the United States.
"The school's response has been, 'Well, we don't allow anyone to distribute literature,' which is factually not true," the ADF affiliate points out. After all, he says, Midway High School officials allowed for students, three weeks beforehand, to distribute literature and post literature throughout the school on the pro-homosexual Day of Silence.
"But, within a few minutes of Benjamin handing out his literature," Cortman notes, "he was immediately stopped, ordered to go pick up the remaining flyers, and sent to suspension without a word to say." That is why the attorney is demanding that his client's student record be expunged and that he be allowed to distribute his literature.
But beyond relief for Arthurs, the attorney adds, he wants to make sure that no other students in the future run into the same problem with their flyers or handouts being barred by school officials in the same arbitrary and discriminatory manner. For that reason, he says, "the second thing we are challenging is the school's outdated policy that bans the possession or distribution of any literature without principal approval."
Cortman says he is asking the federal court to declare the school's unequally imposed ban on literature distribution unconstitutional. If the court rules favorably for the plaintiff, he believes the ruling will prevent Midway High School from engaging further in viewpoint discrimination against Christian students.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
