The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a group known for defending anti-gay stances and positions, has filed a federal civil rights suit against Midway High School and the Sampson County School Board (near Wilmington, NC).
According to an Associated Press article of 365gay.com News and a press release from the ADF, the ADF claims that the administrators at Midway High School prevented a student from handing out anti-gay literature in conjunction with the Day of Truth, which was held on the day following the Day of Silence. The Day of Truth is sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund and the group had urged students to take the material to school and speak the “truth” about the “evils” of homosexuality.
According to the AP article:
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund said students at Midway High School were allowed to participate in the April 26 Day of Silence, an event promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.
The group said student Benjamin Arthurs was refused permission to wear a Day of Truth shirt on the following day and distribute cards presenting a Christian viewpoint on homosexuality during non-instructional time. He was suspended this week for ignoring the warning.
The county school superintendent said the student was allowed to wear his shirt but was told he couldn’t pass out leaflets.
“School officials shouldn’t be treating religious students any differently than they treat other students,” David Cortman, an attorney with the group, said in a statement.
According to the lawsuit, Sampson County Board of Education Superintendent Stewart Hobbs said Arthurs would be “pushing his religion on others” and “religion is not allowed in school.”
Hobbs said in a telephone interview that the student was given in-school suspension for insubordination after disobeying the principal about the leaflets, but that the student’s mother decided to take out-of-school suspension.
“He chose to pass out the fliers,” Hobbs said.
The suit, filed in federal court in Wilmington, names the Sampson County Board of Education, Hobbs, and Midway principal Gaynor Canady as defendants.
So… was this student treated unfairly? Yeah, probably… especially if those students participating in the Day of Silence were able to pass out their “speaking cards” explaining why they weren’t speaking. Needless to say (as much as I despise the ADF’s “Day of Truth” message), the school administrators really messed up.
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They didn’t mess up Matt…. Remember there is separation of church and state, not gay and state. It is illegal for the Christians to do what they wanted to do. Until they pass a law saying separation of gay and school… then by all means, gays have the oddly peculiar legal upper-hand in the matter.
Depends on how you look at the issue, I guess. One side would have your point of view, the other would say that the student has a right to free speech by passing out the literature (as long as no school employee is involved or the student is not forcing it on anyone).
But… it looks as though these arguments will get their fair day in court.
Yea. Looks like the principal made a boo-boo.
This seems to be a clear violation of the student’s right to religious expression (Free Exercise Clause).
It works both ways.
While working with the ACLU one summer, we filed suit against a school who banned a Gay-Straight Alliance but we also filed suit against a school that banned students from wearing Dixie Outfitters Clothing (Confederate Flag T-shirts)…
Matt:
Forgot to fill you in on how things went for my sister on Day of Silence. The good news: something like forty people at her school participated. Which at a school the size of hers in as conservative a town is a big deal.
The bad news: she was called into the principal’s office and scolded for organizing it and for organizing a gay/straight alliance.
Which lead me to talk to a lawyer and call her principal to scold him. I made it clear that he had no legal authority to prevent either of those things, read him snipets of several federal laws verbatim, cited case law to him and let him know, very specifically, what would happen if I got wind that my sister or her group got any more grief from his office or if they didn’t do everything in their power to prevent other students from giving them undue grief for peacefully assembling and expressing themselves. He stuttered a lot, called his lawyer and, at the end of the day, reversed his position and called my sister to his office to explain how the whole thing had been a misunderstanding and how he of course had no problem with any of these things.
I even got him to admit he had no authority to make my sister (or any of the other students at his school) sign a “conduct code” agreement specifying that the girls will wear gowns and the boys tuxedoes to the prom. She’ll be wearing a tux. And I have a strong suspicion that, after getting an early-morning call from me, he tells her how great she looks that night.
The school unfortunately did mess up, despite not wanting to personally admit that. I get sick in my stomach when I see publicly displayed intolerance acts, and this group is an example of that. However, because of the Equal Access Act, the school cannot deny access to any group if it provides access for any other. There are a few loopholes, but this school did not exercise caution in their enforcement.
If they had said that social protest groups would be allowed but not religious groups, that would be one thing. However, generally the Equal Access Act provides that if you let any outside group use school grounds or space for demonstrations or actions, you must allow ALL groups equal access to school property. Thus, the principle cannot allow anyone to demonstrate, or he must allow everyone to demonstrate.
It sucks, but I appreciate the law nonetheless because it is the basis that allows LGBT groups to be formed in schools. It’s hard to not be a hypocrit and say that the religious group shouldn’t demonstrate, but in the fairness of everything we mustn’t say such things.
Your right Lee. These radical, religious right groups can keep on doing what they are doing. We will eventually stop them and history will vindicate us… In history’s eyes, these radical, religious right groups will be seen in the same light as the pro-slavery folk, the pro-child labor folk, the anti-suffrage folk and the pro-segregation people.
WOW Joe your sister rocks! I live near Sampson County where my cousin is a school teacher. I am so proud to know a youth from our area is standing up against the odds. I was instructed by my PSY teacher to do 10 hours of community services with a childrens service organization locally. However I was disapointed to learn there does not appear to be one is Wilmington that focus is on gay and lesbian youth. These youth need our help now more than ever. Tell your sister I could use her voice when I start proposing to form one in Wilmington. She seems very well motivated to fight for her beliefs.