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School Harasses Michigan Sixth Grader Wearing Pro-Life T-shirts - Legal Action Underway

Singled him out for ridicule in front of his classmates, removed him from class, threatened him with suspension

ANN ARBOR, MI, June 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life sixth grader has been "ridiculed and threatened" on numerous occasions by his school’s administration for wearing t-shirts expressing his pro-life beliefs. The Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm, announced today that it has filed a federal lawsuit defending the Constitutional rights of the boy. 

The sixth grader, referred to in the lawsuit as “K. B.” because of his age, is a Christian who believes that abortion is the wrongful taking of an innocent life and a grave offense to the Law of God.

School officials, including the principal and several teachers, on over a dozen occasions during April 2008, told “K. B.” not to wear the t-shirts, publicly singled him out for ridicule in front of his classmates, removed him from class, sent him to the principal’s office, forced him to turn his pro-life t-shirt inside out, and threatened him with suspension if he did not stop wearing the offending pro-life t-shirts.

During the period in question, “K. B.” wore three different t-shirts, all produced by the American Life League, a national Pro-Life advocacy group. The t-shirts contained such pro-life messages as, “Abortion… growing, growing, gone,” “What part of abortion don’t you understand?” and, “Never Known – Not Forgotten.”

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, “This courageous young Christian was ridiculed and threatened by teachers for expressing his deeply held beliefs. These school officials clearly violated the U. S. Constitution and the school’s own written Dress Policy which specifically states it is not intended to abridge the rights of students to express political or religious messages.”

Brandon Bolling, the Law Center attorney assigned as lead counsel stated, “The Supreme Court has held it permissible for public schools to limit student speech only when there is an actual and substantial disruption of school activity. That is not the case here. The only people who took issue with the Pro-Life t-shirts were the school’s employees — in fact, if any one caused any disruption, it was the school’s employees, by their constant public harassment of our client because they disagreed with his pro-life message.”

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