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Students Consider Lawsuit After School Suspension for Voicing Opposition to Homosexuality

By Gudrun Schultz

SACRAMENTO, California, May 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Twelve high school students who were suspended for voicing their opposition to homosexuality are considering a lawsuit against their Roseville school.

The Oakmont High School students wore T-shirts to school printed with the message “Homosexuality is sin. Jesus can set you free.” School officials warned the students to remove the shirts or face a two-day suspension. The students took the suspension.

The students were participating in a nationwide event called Day of Truth, intended to be a peaceful expression by students of Christian beliefs on homosexuality. The event countered the Day of Silence observed one day earlier by students in support of homosexuality.

The principle of Oakmont, Kathleen Sirovy, said the suspensions were justified since “many kids were upset because their shirts were rude,” reported the non-profit legal group representing the students, the Pacific Justice Institute, in a press release last week.

The students have filed appeals of the suspensions with school officials, and are considering a lawsuit, according to PJI. The organization said the school “did not address whether religious students might have been equally offended by pro-homosexual expression connected with the Day of Silence.”

Some students who supported the Day of Silence objected to the school’s action against the students. Lance Chih, student and co-chair of the Sacramento Regional Gay Straight Alliance, told the Sacrament Bee, “If they’re stating their own belief that homosexuality is wrong, that’s not promoting hate of violence against us. If I want to promote my civil rights, I can’t tell another group of students that they can’t do it.”

In a similar instance last month, a San Francisco student who was removed from his class and threatened with suspension after wearing a T-shirt that said homosexuality was “shameful,” citing a Bible verse, lost an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court after a lower court ruled against the free speech claims of the student.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who has favoured abortion, homosexual rights and assisted suicide in previous rulings, upheld the lower court’s decision on the basis of controversial studies saying homosexual students are more likely to receive bias and therefore need special protection from opposing views, said the PJI in a press release.

Brad Dacus, president of the PJI, said, “This is, without exaggeration, one of the worst student free speech decisions the Ninth Circuit has ever issued—and that’s saying a lot. We are hopeful this decision will eventually be reversed and remembered as an embarrassing moment of hypocrisy for those who advocate tolerance and diversity. Although this was not a PJI case, we will continue to vigorously defend students’ rights.”

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
“Day of Truth” Counters Gay-Sponsored Student “Day of Silence”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042705.html

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