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| Students for Life Poster |
“Public schools have a duty to treat
all student groups equally,” said Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior
Counsel of the Thomas More Society. “Wilson High School’s current policy
allows administrators to censor any messages they deem ‘offensive’—in this
case, any pro-life message—while allowing other groups broad freedom of
speech. The administration is violating the rights of the students
involved in Wilson Students for Life, who do not lose their constitutionally
protected freedom of speech when they enter the schoolhouse door.”
The group selected two posters to
promote its club and asked the administration’s permission to hang these
posters. The first read “Since Roe v. Wade 1/3 of our generation has been
aborted” with a picture of a milk carton and the word “missing” above the photo
of a baby. The second poster quotes President Ronald Reagan: “I’ve noticed that
everyone who is for abortion is already born.”
The administration refused to give
WSFL permission to hang the posters. The administration stated that the
school policy only allows posters that “do not offend staff or students, put
others down if they have a different belief/opinion, or otherwise cause
disruption.” WSFL’s posters, the administration maintained, would violate
this policy because they promote a message rather than solely promoting the
group’s meetings.
Despite
this policy, however, the administration has permitted the Wilson Gay Straight
Alliance (“GSA”) to hang flyers, for example, promoting homosexual
relationships by showing conjoined male symbols and conjoined female symbols
and stating “Love knows no limits.”
After the administration’s denial of
WSFL’s posters, school administrators met with WSFL leaders to “give them
advice” on how to best run their club. On student said he left the
meeting feeling like his group was encouraged to only host events after school,
while other groups were allowed to do what they wanted during the school
day.
“The Wilson High School
administration cannot be allowed to trample on the constitutional rights of
Wilson Students for Life,” said Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America. “Our pro-life students will not accept their right to free speech
being taken away. Sadly, this case shows that viewpoint discrimination is
alive and well in today’s schools and that administrators think they can still
get away with it. Students for Life of America is proud to stand with
Wilson Students for Life to demand that the Wilson High School
administration reverse their unjust decision and give equal treatment to all
students and student groups, regardless of their views on abortion.”
The federal Equal Access Act
requires that schools give each student group the same opportunities, without
discriminating against any group. In 2002, the United States Court of
Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that a Washington school which gave one group
access to its bulletin boards must give that access to all student
groups. Moreover, a number of Supreme Court decisions, such as Tinker
v. Des Moines Independent Sch. Dist., have held that students’ speech
cannot be silenced simply because the administration has vague fears of
disruption.
“Wilson Students for Life is
passionate about the pro-life movement,” stated Bryce Asberg, Founder of Wilson
Students for Life, “and we will continue to stand for life in our community. We
simply desire to be allowed to express our views.”
