Son of a VET
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Joined: 07 Aug 2004
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Location: TN
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 Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 11:42 am Post subject: Public School Must Pay for Censoring Christian Student |
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| Quote: | Public School Must Pay for Censoring Christian Student 10/21/2004
By Anne F. Downey, Esq.
Panel discussion bans traditional Biblical viewpoint on homosexuality.
A federal district judge has ordered Michigan’s Ann Arbor Public Schools to pay $102,738 in attorney fees and costs in a case involving a high school’s refusal to let a Christian student express her views on homosexuality.
In March 2002, at Pioneer High School’s “Diversity Week” program, Elizabeth “Betsy” Hansen, then a senior, was told she could not express her Roman Catholic viewpoint at the school’s “Homosexuality and Religion” panel discussion. The school also discriminated in limiting members of the panel to religious leaders who endorsed homosexuality, refusing to permit access to the panel for any clergy who would express another view.
A school official testified that he was concerned Betsy’s view would be “negative” and would “water down the view that the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance was trying to convey.” School authorities told Betsy that neither she nor a clergyman of her choice could participate in the panel, purportedly because she had missed one of two mandatory planning meetings.
Yet the evidence showed that Betsy was ill on the day of the first meeting, that she had sent a friend to communicate her desire to be on the panel, that she herself had met with the faculty adviser the next day to reiterate her desire to participate, that others who missed the meeting were allowed to participate in activities, and that following the missed meeting school officials continued to communicate with Betsy as though she would be allowed to participate. It was only after one faculty member concerned about a civil rights lawsuit canceled the panel, which was then reinstated by another school official after the Gay/Straight Alliance’s outcry, that Betsy was informed that her absence from the first mandatory meeting prevented her or her clergy representative from participating.
While the school allowed Betsy to give a two-minute speech at a separate assembly, the school censored it to exclude a passage in which she said that she could not “accept religious and sexual ideas or actions that are wrong.” The school district’s attorney argued that the school edited her speech to promote tolerance and acceptance of minority viewpoints.
In July 2002 the Thomas More Law Center – a nonprofit organization devoted to defending religious liberties, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life – filed a federal civil rights case against the school district on Betsy’s behalf. This resulted in a favorable decision in December 2003, when Judge Gerald Rosen ruled that the school had violated the Constitution’s prohibition against establishing a religion, as well as Betsy’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech and equal protection under the law.
As stated by Judge Rosen, “This case presents the ironic, and unfortunate, paradox of a public high school celebrating ‘diversity’ by refusing to permit the presentation to students of an ‘unwelcomed’ viewpoint on the topic of homosexuality and religion, while actively promoting the competing view. This practice of ‘one-way diversity,’ unsettling in itself, was rendered still more troubling – both constitutionally and ethically – by the fact that the approved viewpoint was, in one manifestation, presented to students as religious doctrine by six clerics (some in full garb) quoting from religious Scripture.”
"This case is another example of blatant anti-Christian bigotry masquerading as 'tolerance,' and 'diversity,'" said Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America (CWA). "It's why CWA works long and hard to fight 'sexual orientation' being added to so-called hate crime statutes. It's loaded with potential for abuse such as this."
The lawsuit requested a ruling on the constitutional issues and reimbursement of Betsy’s attorney fees and costs. In early October 2004, Judge Rosen ordered the district to pay approximately $87,000 in attorney fees and $15,000 in costs. The award will assist the Center as it takes on future cases in the arena of liberty, life and family values.
Like the Biblical story of Esther, the case illustrates a young woman’s courage in standing up for her beliefs in the face of strong resistance. The resistance came in the form of a call for “diversity,” which too often today attempts to silence Christians.
As Betsy experienced, it is not easy to speak out in an era when many call evil good and good evil. One can only hope that public school officials will now think twice before setting up their own religious panels and censoring those who dare to speak out against the gay rights agenda.
Anne Downey is a Christian attorney who practices law with her husband in New York state. She is a member of the Christian Legal Society, an Alliance Defense Fund "ally," and is volunteering her services to CWA's Legal Studies Department.
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