A
Minnesota public school has revised its literature distribution policy after Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit on behalf
of a 6th-grade student. Nova Classical Academy prohibited the student from
distributing pro-life fliers to her classmates during non-instructional time
but now agrees that pro-life expression must be allowed.
“Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,”
said Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “The First Amendment protects freedom of speech
for all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs. The law
on that point is extremely clear: free speech cannot be censored simply because
it expresses a certain viewpoint that administrators don’t favor.”
In late February, the 6th-grade student and her friends peacefully handed out
pro-life fliers at lunchtime to friends and classmates interested in the topic.
One of the fliers read, “Save the baby humans. Stop abortion.”
A few days later, they were called into the school director’s office and told
that some students find pro-life fliers offensive and that they were no longer
allowed to pass them out during or after school hours, even if students
requested them.
In an e-mail to the student’s parents, the school’s executive director claimed
that the content of the fliers was inconsistent with the school’s educational
mission and that “such political activism is limited to students in the School
of Rhetoric [the high school] only.”
“The school has a right to censor students without violating their free
speech,” the executive director wrote. “In short, public schools have every
right to prohibit student speech.”
As a result of the settlement and the enactment of the new policy, students are
permitted to distribute literature as the 6th-grade student and her friends
originally sought to do.
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