A Massachusetts middle-schooler was in court Thursday for arguments that he had been “silenced” by school officials who objectd to his “only two genders” T-shirt.
Middle schooler Liam Morrison was ordered by school officials to take off his “there are only two genders” shirt. (Photo credit Alliance Defending Freedom)
Liam Morrison, now in eighth grade, last year was banned from wearing a shirt to school that read, “There are only two genders.”
His lawyer from Alliance Defending Freedom brought his federal free speech lawsuit in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston on Thursday.
“His T-shirt did not target any individual,” David Cortman, ADF senior counsel and VP of U.S. Litigation, said in court. “It merely addressed the same subject matter the school had already raised, but a different point of view.”
The Middleborough school district each year celebrates Pride month, hanging Pride flags and sending the message that there are “an unlimited number of genders,” Cortman said. In response to that view, Liam wore the controversial shirt to Nichols Middle School last year.
School officials told him to either take off the shirt or leave school for the day. Liam chose to miss the rest of his classes that day.
He then wore a shirt that stated, “There are censored genders,” and again he was ordered to take off the shirt.
“The situation should have been a teaching moment,” Cortman said. “This should have been a moment … that we teach the students how to debate on controversial topics of the day, and yet that did not happen.”
“They decided to censor him,” the lawyer went on. “But what the school cannot do, even though they can share their own views, is decide that only students who agree with those views can speak, but anyone who disagrees should be silenced. And that’s exactly what they did here.”
Outside the federal courthouse on Thursday, Liam told reporters that he was singled out for “expressing my opinion.”
“This isn’t just about a shirt. It’s about free speech,” he said. “All students have a constitutional right to express their free speech without fear of being punished by school officials.”
A U.S. district judge previously ruled in favor of the Middleborough school officials.
The principal said they had received complaints about the shirt and that the words might make some students feel unsafe.
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“Looking at what the school officials knew about their school, the age of the kids, the LGBTQ community in that school, and the real mental health concerns, their decision to have the plaintiff remove the T-shirt was reasonable,” Deborah Ecker, the lawyer representing the school district, told the appeals court on Thursday.
She continued: “They reasonably could forecast that the message, if he was allowed to wear it in the school and in a classroom, would reasonably cause a disruption to the school work and invade the rights of other students.”
The federal appeals court judges took the matter under advisement.
Middleborough is a town of 25,000 people about 30 miles south of Boston.
