.bmp)
.bmp)
A Minnesota 6th-grader is taking his school to court after being ordered repeatedly not to wear pro-life T-shirts to class.Twelve-year-old K.B., whose full name is not being used because of his age, decided that he wanted to share his pro-life beliefs with his classmates during the month of April. So he decided to wear a pro-life T-shirt to school every day. Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, says things went well, at first. "The first day nothing happened. But the second day and several days thereafter, he was confronted by not only the principal, but also by other teachers indicating that they were displeased that he was wearing the T-shirts," the attorney explains. "And at one point, they threatened to suspend him from school. On several occasions, they sent him to the principal's office. They indicated he had to turn his T-shirt inside-out." Despite the alleged attempts at intimidation and public humiliation, Thompson says K.B. stood his ground. "And, so, for about a month, he's really endured, for a 12-year-old, he really endured a lot of ridicule. They would call him out in front of his class and, ultimately, we decided that it was important that we file this lawsuit on his behalf -- not only because his constitutional rights were being infringed upon, but also to let the school know that they can't do this [again] in the future," Thompson contends. Hutchinson Middle School does have a policy forbidding students to wear clothing with "lewd, obscene, vulgar, defamatory or profane" messages. But K.B.'s three shirts said only:-- "Abortion ... growing, growing, gone"
-- "What part of abortion don't you understand?" and,
-- "Never Known - Not Forgotten"
According to the Law Center president, the school principal stated he found the T-shirts annoying. "So, apparently an annoying T-shirt now falls within one of those categories," Thompson suggests. "In fact, it is our position that the school was violating its own written guidelines when it said the intent of that dress code was not to abridge the rights of students to express their political or religious opinions." Thompson says K.B.'s lawsuit argues that the school's actions are a clear case of content discrimination against his religious and political opinion opposing abortion. "In this case, it was very clear to us that what this young man was doing was expressing a religious or, if you want, a political opinion that abortion is wrong. He certainly had a right to do that," he argues.
As in the days of Noah....
