Jun 06 2008
Boy Threatened by School Officials over Anti-Abortion Shirt
A Hutchinson woman is suing the city’s public schools, claiming officials repeatedly warned her 12-year-old he couldn’t wear anti-abortion T-shirts to school and then made him change when he persisted in trying to wear them for a month.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis by a Christian legal advocacy group, claims Jeanne Ibbitson’s sixth-grader’s right to free speech was violated and that he suffered “irreparable harm” when teachers and administrators had him turn the T-shirts — he wore them for several days — inside out.
“My son kept getting singled out,” Ibbitson said. “He should be able to wear those shirts at school, and they decided that he can’t. It’s not right.”
Daron VanderHeiden, superintendent of Independent School District No. 423, said he’d only received a copy of the lawsuit Wednesday afternoon and couldn’t comment at length.
“We’re currently seeking legal counsel on it,” he said. “I don’t know the facts of the incident other than what’s in here (the lawsuit), and that’s their version of what happened.”
The suit was filed Wednesday by attorneys for the Thomas More Law Center. On its Web site, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group says it is a nonprofit law firm “dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values and the sanctity of human life.”
Paul Taylor, a Burnsville attorney who is a volunteer with the organization, said school officials violated the youth’s free-speech rights because “they didn’t like the message.”
“The Supreme Court has said students don’t check their free-speech rights at the schoolhouse door,” Taylor said. “The fact is, they were punishing the message.”
That message was written on three T-shirts Ibbitson’s son — identified in the lawsuit as “K.B.” —wore to Hutchinson Middle School during April. One T-shirt had the words, “Abortion — Growing, Growing, Gone,” another had “What part of abortion don’t you understand?” and the third had “Never Known, Not Forgotten” on the front, with the inscription “47,000,000 babies aborted 1973-2008″ on the back.
Each T-shirt had photos of unborn fetuses. Each was ordered from the Web site of an anti-abortion group, American Life League.
Read more here.
[From me]
I guess a “Sex in the City” or “Free Condoms” T-shirt would have been OK.
What do you think?
8 responses so far
Does smack of being singled out when kids are allowed to wear all manner of shirts with all kinds of picture and sayings. This stuff will happen more and more.
Bill(cycleguy)’s last blog post..Time for a Crazy
I couldn’t tell what criteria they used to ban the shirt, but it looks like a weak case regardless. There is so much garbage and darkness in public schools. They seem to be afraid of any light at all. It reminds me of the college in Canada that actually believes they support free speech even as they ban clubs that are pro-life.
Neil’s last blog post..Weekly roundup
Honestly, Kevin I get so weary of reading these type of “fill-in-the-blanks” stories designed in my opinion to make Christians in this country (1) feel persecuted and (2) get worried that some dark cultural force is going to eliminate us.
What really happens is it sets people up to get into a situation where under the guise of spreading the truth, they can declare mistreatment and demand their rights. I know that is a wonderfully American right, but how helpful to the true cause is it? Is this kind of story going to do anything really to introduce the reality of the love of Jesus Christ to the world? Or is it just religio-political noise?
Would not our time be better spent loving people in the here and now rather than fighting for our rights to wear our particular agendized soap box T-shirts?
I find this kind of thing tiring and not worthy of our attention.
And now, I’ll step down off of my own soap box.
Greg Allen’s last blog post..Wednesday, June 4, 2008
I agree with Greg.
Phil Hoover’s last blog post..My heart is aching….
Greg,
I don’t disagree. Sometimes I just post stuff that is out there and give little commentary. Honestly most Christian T-shirts get on my nerves especially when they are knock-offs.
Kevin Bussey’s last blog post..Boy Threatened by School Officials over Anti-Abortion Shirt
my weariness isn’t with you, kevin…it is with the recurring story.
sorry if i didn’t make that clear…
Greg Allen’s last blog post..Friday, June 6, 2008
I agree with Greg too. It seems silly to me that the boy would keep wearing the shirts. He only had 3 but wore them for days. The family would have had to be purposefully going against the school rules by doing his laundry. How many children has this family adopted? Just doesn’t seem like a love stance to wear the shirt. (which, of course, wearing a SATC shirt would be in support of good relationships…HA!)
Brother Greg,
You’ll probably enjoy this one:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d1345dd8fe4e481144d8
His peace be with you,
From the Middle East
from the middle east’s last blog post..two business owners