Politics
Monday May 8, 2006
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Students Consider Lawsuit After School Suspension for Voicing Opposition to Homosexuality
By Gudrun Schultz
SACRAMENTO, California, May 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Twelve high school students who were suspended for voicing their opposition to homosexuality are considering a lawsuit against their Roseville school.
The Oakmont High School students wore T-shirts to school printed with the message “Homosexuality is sin. Jesus can set you free.” School officials warned the students to remove the shirts or face a two-day suspension. The students took the suspension.
The students were participating in a nationwide event called Day of Truth, intended to be a peaceful expression by students of Christian beliefs on homosexuality. The event countered the Day of Silence observed one day earlier by students in support of homosexuality.
The principle of Oakmont, Kathleen Sirovy, said the suspensions were justified since “many kids were upset because their shirts were rude,” reported the non-profit legal group representing the students, the Pacific Justice Institute, in a press release last week.
The students have filed appeals of the suspensions with school officials, and are considering a lawsuit, according to PJI. The organization said the school “did not address whether religious students might have been equally offended by pro-homosexual expression connected with the Day of Silence.”
Some students who supported the Day of Silence objected to the school’s action against the students. Lance Chih, student and co-chair of the Sacramento Regional Gay Straight Alliance, told the Sacrament Bee, “If they’re stating their own belief that homosexuality is wrong, that’s not promoting hate of violence against us. If I want to promote my civil rights, I can’t tell another group of students that they can’t do it.”
In a similar instance last month, a San Francisco student who was removed from his class and threatened with suspension after wearing a T-shirt that said homosexuality was “shameful,” citing a Bible verse, lost an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court after a lower court ruled against the free speech claims of the student.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who has favoured abortion, homosexual rights and assisted suicide in previous rulings, upheld the lower court’s decision on the basis of controversial studies saying homosexual students are more likely to receive bias and therefore need special protection from opposing views, said the PJI in a press release.
Brad Dacus, president of the PJI, said, “This is, without exaggeration, one of the worst student free speech decisions the Ninth Circuit has ever issued—and that’s saying a lot. We are hopeful this decision will eventually be reversed and remembered as an embarrassing moment of hypocrisy for those who advocate tolerance and diversity. Although this was not a PJI case, we will continue to vigorously defend students’ rights.”
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
“Day of Truth” Counters Gay-Sponsored Student “Day of Silence”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/apr/06042705.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Levant Target of Latest Human Rights Complaint By Homosexual Activist
- Bishop Calls Modern Cultural Changes "Pleasing" to the Devil
- Australian Woman Dies from Taking Birth Control Pill
- Is it True McCain "Got the Message" About not Running a Pro-Abortion VP?
- Petition of 30,000 Canadians Asks Governor General to Rescind Order of Canada to Abortionist
- Freedom of Conscience for Ontario Doctors: Public Comment Extended to September 12
- Promote Culture of Life and Catholic Teaching to Combat Rising Crime and Cultural Degradation: Lancaster Bishop
- Success with Re-growing Horse Ligaments Leads to New NIH Adult Stem Cell Centre
- Lithuanian Government Bans EU Pro-Homosexual Tour Truck
- Guatemalan Cardinal on Abortion: "It is just as serious to kill a 10 year-old child"
- MP Ken Epp responds to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada's Claims about Unborn Victims of Crime Bill
- Health Minister: Safe-Injection Sites a "Surrender to a Culture of Disease and Death."
- Indiana County Commission Upholds Regulations on Abortions under Criticism
- Statistics Canada Finds More Abstinence among Teen Girls in the Last Decade
- Exclusive: Retiring UK Bishop Reveals No Consensus among Brother Bishops over Same-sex Adoption
- California Supreme Court Rules Doctors Must Provide Treatment against Their Religious Beliefs
Most Read this Week
- Westminster Exorcist: Promiscuity can Lead to Demonic Possession
- Secret Meeting to Plot Global Abortion Strategy Exposed - UN Personnel Present
- Batman The Dark Knight - Should We Fear Imitation of the Joker?
- Massive Brazilian Vaccination Raises Suspicions of Covert Sterilization Program
- Niece of Martin Luther King Jr. to Lead Prayer Vigil Outside Largest U.S. Abortion Centre - Monday August 25
- Obama Caught Red-Handed in Abortion Lie
- New England Journal of Medicine: 'Brain Death' is not Death - Organ Donors are Alive
- HPV Vaccine Causes 21 Deaths and Counting - CDC Study Launched
- Traditional Fort Worth Episcopal Priests Seek Communion with Catholic Church
- Homeschooling Showdown in Brazil: Children to be Tested by Court in Battle Over Educational Rights of Parents
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.