ADF Sues NY School District Over Censorship of Pro-Life Viewpoint
by Jim Brown
January 5, 2007
(AgapePress) - - One of the largest school districts in upstate New York has joined a growing list of public schools now facing a federal lawsuit over their treatment of pro-life students. A middle school student has sued the Shenendehowa Central School District after allegedly being told to turn his pro-life T-shirt inside out and to stop distributing to his classmates flyers that discussed the dangers of abortion. Shenendehowa Central is the third U.S. public school district in the last two weeks to be sued by the pro-family legal organization Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) for censoring pro-life students. ADF attorneys filed a complaint against the district and the principal of the Gowana Middle School on behalf of a student who says he was barred from expressing pro-life views during the national Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, an event organized by the Stand True ministry.
The plaintiff's attorney, Matt Bowman, says students at Gowana Middle School who received the pro-life student's flyers were ordered to return them immediately to administrators to be discarded. But Bowman is highlighting what he sees as a double standard on the school officials' part.
"This school allows literature and T-shirts criticizing the Iraq war and criticizing President Bush," the ADF lawyer points out. Also, he notes, "They have a sex-ed program; and yet this principal shut down every method of pro-life speech because he says students shouldn't be thinking about that."
However, the law is on the student's side -- not the administration's, Bowman insists. He says U.S. courts have clearly stated that if other students are allowed to wear T-shirts and pass out literature on controversial issues outside of class, then Christian and pro-life students should have the same right.
Shenendehowa District officials would be wise to settle the case, the pro-family attorney contends. "We're always willing to work with a school to prevent blatant constitutional violations like this," he says; "And hopefully this school and other schools will decide before litigation happens -- or before litigation has to proceed -- that they're not going to pick and choose which students get to exercise their constitutional rights."
ADF-affiliated attorney Tom Marcelle of Albany, New York, is serving as co-counsel in the Shenendehowa case. He comments, "If 13-year-olds are old enough to participate in sexual education courses, they are certainly old enough to talk about issues such as abortion."
In any case, students have rights under the First Amendment, Marcelle emphasizes. School officials, he asserts, do not have the right to select which constitutionally protected speech is permissible and which is not.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
