MIDDLEBOROUGH, Massachusetts (LifeSiteNews) – A Massachusetts family is suing the middle school that in March sent their 12-year-old son home for wearing a shirt that stated, “there are only two genders.”
On May 19, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Massachusetts Family Institute filed a lawsuit against the town of Middleborough and John T. Nichols, Jr. Middle School on behalf of 12-year-old Liam Morrison and his family.
“The Constitution protects this freedom to differ, in part, by prohibiting the government from adopting and enforcing a set of approved views on these matters in America’s public schools,” the lawsuit states.
After the incident, Liam spoke to the school board asking why his First Amendment right to freedom of speech had been restricted.
“I was told that people were complaining about the words on my shirt, that my shirt was making some students feel unsafe,” Liam recalled. “Yes, words on a shirt made people feel unsafe. They told me that I wasn’t in trouble, but it sure felt like I was.”
“What did my shirt say? Five simple words: ‘There are only two genders.’ Nothing harmful, nothing threatening. Just a statement I believe to be a fact. I have been told that my shirt was targeting a protected class. Who is this protected class? Are their feelings more important than my rights?”
Liam pointed out that he does not complain about the “pride flags and diversity posters hung throughout the school,” citing the reality that, “Others have a right to their beliefs just as I do.”
However, he questioned why his right to express himself was being crushed while others were encouraged to speak out.
“Why do the rules apply to one yet not another?” he wondered. “I feel like these adults were telling me that it wasn’t okay for me to have an opposing view…I know that I have a right to wear the shirt with those five words. Even at 12 years old I have my own political opinions, and I have a right to express those opinions.”
According to the lawsuit, in early May, Liam attended school wearing another shirt that read, “There are censored genders.” While no one complained about the shirt, Liam was called to the principal’s office as soon as he arrived at his first class.
Liam removed the shirt on his way to the office. He was told that if he kept the shirt off, he would be permitted to stay at school but otherwise he would be sent home. Not wanting to miss another day of school, Liam chose not to wear the shirt.
“The school’s own student handbook actually says that all aspects of public education should be available to members of both sexes,” Tyler Langhofer, director of the Center for Academic Freedom at ADF, pointed out. “It defines sexual harassment to include anything derogatory to either gender. So the school’s own handbook … talks about a sex binary.”
In recent years, public schools across the country have consistently promoted LGBT agenda and exposed children to radical and explicit gender ideology. Earlier this year, LifeSiteNews reported that an already scandal-plagued school district in Wisconsin was planning to host a week-long session dedicated to indoctrinating students as young as five years old with the materials from an LGBT activist group.
Individual teachers have also been caught exposing children to sexually explicit material and ideas while also advocating for such interactions to be kept hidden from parents. Additionally, school districts have faced backlash for allowing “after school Satan clubs” to form and meet on school property.
Meanwhile, some children exposed to gender ideology or, like Morrison, made victims of suppression have shared their experiences to draw attention to the issues. In March, a viral video showed an 11-year-old boy reading aloud from a pornographic book at a school board meeting, exposing how easily young kids can access sexually explicit materials in school libraries.