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Today's lesson: Ohio school district must allow student to wear T-shirt with religious message
Alliance Defense Fund ^ | 8/18/05

Posted on 08/18/2005 3:33:01 PM PDT by dukeman

Federal court rules in favor of student and grants permanent injunction sought by ADF-allied attorneys

COLUMBUS, Ohio-- A federal district court today ruled in favor of attorneys allied with the Alliance Defense Fund and ordered an Ohio school district to respect the First Amendment rights of a student, declaring its treatment of the student unconstitutional.

The Northern Local School District prohibited the student, James Nixon, from wearing a T-shirt that one school official deemed "offensive" and "potentially disruptive" even though no disruption actually occurred.

"The Constitution does not permit censorship based upon what someone thinks 'might' happen," said ADF-allied attorney Rick Nelson of the American Liberties Institute based in Orlando, Fla. "The court has done the right thing by protecting our client's ability to exercise his First Amendment right to wear his T-shirt if he so chooses."

Nixon wore a black T-shirt with white lettering to school as a seventh grade student at Sheridan Middle School in Thornville on September 1 of last year. The front of the T-shirt contained a Bible verse; the back contained Nixon's viewpoint on homosexuality, Islam, and abortion. After learning of Nixon's T-shirt, school and district officials decided the T-shirt's message violated the district's Student Code of Conduct and prohibited Nixon from wearing the shirt to school.

According to the opinion issued today by U.S. District Court Judge George Smith in the case, Nixon v. Northern Local School District Board of Education, "there is no evidence that James' silent, passive expression of opinion interfered with the work of Sheridan Middle School or collided with the rights of other students to be let alone. Therefore, the Court rejects defendants' assertion that James' T-shirt invaded on the rights of others."

"Other students' mere disagreement with the message on James' T-shirt is not enough to outweigh James' constitutional right to free expression," Smith added. The full text of the court's opinion and order can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/NixonOpinion.pdf.

"There was no legally acceptable basis for the school's actions; therefore, the court rightly declared its treatment of James unconstitutional," Nelson explained. "This is an important victory for the free religious expression rights of students in America's public schools."

ADF is also involved in a similar lawsuit in California involving a Poway High School student who was prohibited from wearing a T-shirt to school that expressed his religious views on homosexual behavior.

ADF is America's largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: adf; alliancedefensefund; dresscodes; tshirt
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To: Freedom_Isn't_Free

Thanks for posting what the shirt said. I like it!


21 posted on 08/18/2005 4:07:55 PM PDT by Integrityrocks
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To: RightWhale

When my daughter was in HS 3 years ago, the old tshirts with messages that were allowed there the sports teams of the their school or the names of colleges.

Anything else what forbidden and notes were sent home. That even even included the logo for Major League Sports Teams (too disruptive).


22 posted on 08/18/2005 4:08:03 PM PDT by JoJo48
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To: sassbox
... I think schools should ban any clothing with writing on it. Political messages are usually provocative and certainly distracting,...

The provocation is more with the teachers and administrators in the pork-barrel public school system. If you take the T-shirts away from the students, you take away the one and only effective means to combat the former Students for a Democratic Society, the 1960's college communists now in control of our schools. In your face slogans are a tactic the Left uses effectively. The Right should be accorded the same right. Bravo for the judge.

23 posted on 08/18/2005 4:08:54 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (Some say what's good for others, the others make the goods; it's the meddlers against the peddlers)
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To: Syberyenta
If T-shirts are allowed, certainly religious messages should be allowed.

However, students should not wear T-shirts to school. There should be a dress code or uniforms. Among others, it would eliminate a huge amount of distractions, lawsuits, controversies, etc.

24 posted on 08/18/2005 4:10:12 PM PDT by Dante3
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To: sassbox
on teaching math, English, science, and history instead.


I only wish they would do just that . If the curriculum were so straightforward we would more than likely not be having this discussion. The environment in the schools has become such that there exist deep divisions . These are not social or economic but divisions in thinking.They are only making their identity known to those who are like minded.Not necessarily seeking to offend These divisions have been if not created by the present curriculum at least encouraged.
25 posted on 08/18/2005 4:19:51 PM PDT by loneroofer (love life)
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To: justche
front of the shirt says:

INTOLERANT
Jesus said . . . I am the way, the truth and the life.
John 14:6

The back of the shirt contains the following statements:

Homosexuality is a sin!
Islam is a lie!
Abortion is murder!
Some issues are just black and white!

26 posted on 08/18/2005 4:22:20 PM PDT by AgThorn (Bush is my president, but he needs to protect our borders. FIRST, before any talk of "Amnesty.")
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To: MississippiMan

As am I.


27 posted on 08/18/2005 4:25:50 PM PDT by nicmarlo
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To: dukeman; All

Lots of good stuff happening in the People's Republic of California, these days. Check out the article in this thread for another one...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1462119/posts


28 posted on 08/18/2005 4:37:23 PM PDT by Old Student (WRM, MSgt, USAF (Ret.))
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To: Old Student

You just wanna show the girl in the tank top again.......


29 posted on 08/18/2005 4:40:21 PM PDT by dukeman
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To: dukeman

That's right. Score one against GLSEN/NAMBLA's offensive and potentially disruptive "day of silence".


30 posted on 08/18/2005 4:40:32 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered. ©)
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To: dukeman

My bad... both very similar stories. Good for Ohio, though.


31 posted on 08/18/2005 4:52:05 PM PDT by RedBeaconNY (Vous parlez trop, mais vous ne dites rien.)
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To: sassbox
" Leave the t-shirts at home and spend the time and energy on teaching math, English, science, and history instead."

The kid wouldn't be wearing the shirt if he wasn' being taught and exposed to the opposite. He came with a message on a tee-shirt. History...Ahh yes, that would include American history, including the 1st Amendment's protection of Free speech. It would also include socialist countries use of uniforms and sanctions to force conformity. This time the court stood up for what's right. In contrast, it did not when it came down upholding the campaign rules.

32 posted on 08/18/2005 5:15:11 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: dukeman
"Other students' mere disagreement with the message on James' T-shirt is not enough to outweigh James' constitutional right to free expression," Smith added

Halle-freaking-lujah. All messages or no messages within the bounds of local obscenity laws.

33 posted on 08/18/2005 5:21:27 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: JoJo48

When I was in school the idea of messages printed on clothing was nonexistent. That was more than three years ago.


34 posted on 08/18/2005 5:26:09 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and open the Land Office)
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To: dukeman
"You just wanna show the girl in the tank top again......."

Guilty as charged. I just KNOW there is some lonely GI out there who is perfect for her. Pass it around to you military friends, will ya? Heck, there's probably some lonely GI out there that she'd be perfect for, too. Getting married steadies the GI's down. Ran into one of my troops about 5 years after he left Nellis, he'd made Staff Sergeant, gotten married, and had 2.5 kids. He'd also been a hell-raiser as a young guy. Who knows, maybe I have other ulterior motives, too... :)
35 posted on 08/18/2005 7:12:03 PM PDT by Old Student (WRM, MSgt, USAF (Ret.))
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To: dukeman

Waste of time and money. I was against it when I was a kid, but school uniforms make more and more sense to me as I get older.


36 posted on 08/18/2005 7:13:09 PM PDT by Zeroisanumber
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To: Zeroisanumber

I'm pretty much where you are on the issue, but I do like it when free speech is vindicated.


37 posted on 08/18/2005 7:32:21 PM PDT by dukeman
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To: dukeman

Yar.


38 posted on 08/18/2005 7:53:47 PM PDT by Zeroisanumber
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To: Old Student

I KNOW you military types can be prescise, but 2.5 kids? That's just toilet training by gunpoint to be that particular. ;)

</sarcasm>

Paul


39 posted on 08/22/2005 9:49:53 AM PDT by spacewarp (Visit the American Patriot Party and stay a while. http://www.patriotparty.us)
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later pingout.


40 posted on 08/22/2005 10:10:59 AM PDT by little jeremiah (A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, are incompatible with freedom. P. Henry)
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