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Freedom of Speech!
(Except for Pro-Lifers)
by Erik Whittington
[Editor’s Note: A big thank you to all
NextWave Faithful members who participated
in the annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day
on April 27th! Check out
RockforLife.org for life-saving pro-life
shirts and gear that you can wear all year
long.]
You wouldn’t think in some of the most
pro-life, pro-family states in America that
public school students would have their
free-speech rights trampled for wearing
T-shirts with a message about abortion – but
it has happened. Yes, it has happened for
three years running now since American Life
League first introduced its National
Pro-life T-shirt Day. Last week, students
across the country were forced to remove
pro-life T-shirts, cover them with jackets,
sweatshirts or duct tape, or face
disciplinary action. Sound like a bad dream?
Nope. It’s the scary truth.
American Life League marked its third annual
National Pro-life T-shirt Day on Tuesday,
April 26. Tens of thousands of students and
adults wore shirts with pro-life messages to
their high schools and colleges.
Unfortunately, many young people saw for the
first time how their rights as American
citizens can be infringed upon by
overzealous school administrators.
The calls to American Life League’s office
began early Tuesday morning. “I was removed
from class today and asked by my principal
to turn my shirt inside-out, remove it or go
home and change shirts. What should I do?”
asked one pro-life student. This was the
unthinkable question that was continually
asked throughout the day.
Knowing that teenagers like to be teenagers,
and knowing what some of the current fashion
statements are, one might ask if other
students were told to change shirts that
read, “Porn Star” or “Playboy Bunny.” Or,
one might ask if students were told to
change their clothing because it was small,
skimpy and revealing. Apparently not. The
shirts that students were asked to remove
displayed a picture of a living baby in the
womb with the words, “She smiles, hears,
kicks and feels pain. Abortion kills kids.”
The message is simple, blunt and truthful.
Certain school administrators took it upon
themselves to rewrite the Constitution
regarding free speech, conveniently ignoring
one simple fact. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme
Court’s decision in the 1969 case Tinker v.
Des Moines Independent Community School
District, students do not “shed their
constitutional rights…at the schoolhouse
gate.” That landmark case protected students
who wore black armbands to protest the
Vietnam War. One would suspect that many on
the faculty and staff that demanded those
students lose their pro-life T-shirts can
remember their own days of protesting the
Vietnam War. Students who stand up for the
rights of preborn children today feel just
as passionately as those students in the 60s
who protested the war. Likewise, today’s
students deserve the same rights that the
war protestors were granted. I guess some
administrators just need to go back to
school and read their history books.
Yes, you wouldn’t think that a T-shirt with
a baby and a simple message would cause such
a controversy, but it has. Here is just a
sampling:
·
Students say administrators at a high school in
Massachusetts pulled 35 students from their
classes and instructed them to immediately
change their shirts, cover the picture and
message, or turn them inside out. One girl
gladly removed her shirt, which proudly
revealed another T-shirt underneath which
read “Abortion Is Homicide.” Needless to
say, she was told that the same rules
applied to her second shirt as well.
·
Two young girls in a Virginia middle school say they were
brought to the principal’s office and
informed that their shirts caused a
disruption and needed to be covered, removed
or turned inside out. When the girls’ mother
was apprised of the situation, she was far
from happy. After pressing the principal,
the mother learned that her daughter had not
caused any problems, but other students
started a lively conversation in first
period class about abortion and the teacher
felt that she couldn’t control the
situation. (Call the police, quick! Students
are thinking about and discussing important
issues in school…this must be stopped!). The
teacher then decided to send the peaceful
wearer of the life-promoting shirt to the
principal’s office instead of those students
who were supposedly causing a disruption in
the classroom. Thankfully, Mom has decided
to challenge the school. Ironically, the two
other children in that family, one in the
same middle school and the other in a nearby
high school, had no problems wearing their
pro-life shirts to school that day. Where is
the logic?
·
Three middle school students in Texas say they were also
forced by their teachers to conceal the
pro-life message on their shirts because of
the “disruption” they were causing.
Amazingly, when one of the courageous
pro-life students questioned, “What about
our right to free speech?” the teacher
arrogantly responded, “Freedom of speech
does not apply at school!” Oh really? Texas
is in the United States, right? Of course
the parents of these students were livid at
the situation and challenged the school.
After being informed by one of the assistant
principals that the pro-life shirt was
causing other students to act disruptively,
the parent asked, “So what disciplinary
actions were taken against the disruptive
students?” Fuming, the assistant principal
quickly avoided the question and informed
the parent that if his daughter did not
change or cover her T-shirt, she would be
suspended. Again, this brave, pro-life
trooper told her assistant principal that
she would not remove the shirt, and her
father stuck by her. Two hours later the
school principal called the parent to
apologize then informed him that his
daughter had a right to wear the T-shirt.
I'm guessing he looked up the term “freedom
of speech” in the dictionary.
·
Finally, the real doozy of all the stories came from Iowa.
Tamera and her sister Brittany say they were
instructed to -- well you know the story --
cover, turn inside out or remove the shirt
because of the disruption they were causing.
Tamera, worried about her graduation just
around the corner, decided to comply. Her
younger sister was another story. Brittany
was upset, but refused to change. However,
she says the school strong-armed her into
changing the T-shirt by telling her that if
she didn’t comply, both she AND her older
sister could be suspended and her sister
could miss her graduation. That’s nice…a
young girl reporting her school used
threatening tactics because she was simply
standing up for her Constitutional rights.
Tamera and Brittany’s parents say they are
now considering legal action against the
school.
Have you heard enough? Fortunately for these
and other students, organizations such as
the Thomas More Law Center have committed to
reviewing these situations and coming to the
aid of harassed students. In past cases when
the Thomas More Law Center has gotten
involved, public school administrators
changed their tune when it was pointed out
that students have the right to free
expression.
Young people are truly at the center of a
cultural storm today. Schools are
battlegrounds of ideas and students should
be allowed to peacefully present their
thoughts and beliefs without the threat of
disciplinary action. Pro-life T-shirts carry
a powerful message that so many young people
need to see. We will never know just how
many babies are alive today thanks to the
simple message on a T-shirt. The bottom line
is this: the right to free speech is
everyone’s right. Shouldn’t the right to
life be everyone’s right, too?
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