-High School Student Suspended for Sharing His Faith?

A high school senior in Everett, Washington has been suspended three times and faces potential expulsion for sharing his Christian faith. Here’s the news release about this case from the Pacific Justice Institute:

A new lawsuit filed this week in Seattle federal court challenges what attorneys are calling “egregious” speech restrictions in an Everett high school.

Attorneys with the Pacific Justice Institute are representing Michael Leal, a senior at Cascade High School. Leal is a devout Christian who shares his faith with his fellow students through gospel tracts and the spoken word. He has been suspended three times so far this school year and faces expulsion if he continues to share his faith. School officials have claimed that Leal’s tracts, such as one entitled, “How to Know God,” and other messages concerning the Ten Commandments may be offensive.

In investigating the suspensions, PJI attorneys were shocked by the sweeping nature of school restrictions on speech. While the Supreme Court famously declared 45 years ago in the Tinker case that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate, …

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Response: Some schools in America are getting out of control in their restrictions against students praying together, studying the Bible voluntarily in their spare time, and sharing their beliefs or faith with each other. SCOTUS has spoken long ago on this issue but many educators are either ignorant of past rulings or do not care. In this case the school district did not back down from their un-Constitutional demands upon their students even after they were challenged.

Nevertheless, students still have Constitutional rights when it comes to free speech and religious liberty in their spare time and in their communication with each other. No where in the Constitutional is there an enumerated right not to be offended which is what the district administrators claim they are trying restrict.  However, their actions against this student actually are religious persecution and cannot be allowed to stand.            *Top