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Seventh Grader Sues after Forced by School to Remove Pro-Life T-Shirt

By Kathleen Gilbert

MERCED, California, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The mother of a seventh grade girl has sued administrators at her daughter's school after school officials allegedly forced the girl to remove her pro-life t-shirt.

Anna Amdor filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of her daughter over the 2008 incident at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, California.  Amdor says that Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez violated her daughter's First Amendment rights by mistreating the girl and instructing her to remove the American Life League (ALL) shirt.

The shirt in question depicted images of a fetus growing followed by a blank box, with the words "Abortion: growing... growing... gone." 

"Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office, located in the main office of McSwain Elementary School," states the complaint, as reported by FOX News.

"Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...

"Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again. ... Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day."

The schools' attorney told FOX News that the defendants dispute some of the allegations, and claimed that the complaint "does not properly characterize the events that happened."  A U.S. Eastern District Court judge in June denied the school's motion to dismiss the case based on "failure to state a cognizable claim."

Amador says school officials ordered the girl to remove the shirt as "inappropriate subject matter," citing the school's dress code which bans clothing that bears "suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter."  However, the complaint states that other expressive shirts have not been banned, and that the school's action was "based upon subjective determinations as to which messages are acceptable and which messages are not."

A sixth-grade Michigan boy, chastised for wearing the same ALL shirt and other pro-life shirts, was vindicated in federal court in 2008. 

Thomas More Law Center attorneys say officials provoked by the shirts at the Hutchinson Middle School singled out the boy for ridicule, removed him from class, threatened him with suspension and forced him to turn his shirt inside out.  A federal judge in Minnesota signed a Stipulated Permanent Injunction prohibiting the school from banning the shirts, and the school agreed to pay nominal damages.

In 2006, a New York district court agreed in a similar case that prohibiting a high school student from wearing a pro-life shirt constituted a violation of First Amendment rights.

To contact Mcswain Elementary School:

Terrie Rohrer, Principal
926 North Scott Rd.
Merced, CA 95340
(209) 354-2700 x624
trohrer@mcswain.k12.ca.us

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Court Upholds Harassed Sixth Grader's Right to Wear Pro-Life T-shirts
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/oct/08103008.html

Federal Judge Says School Can't Bar Student From Wearing A Pro-Life Shirt
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011206.html

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