School Gag Order Lifted

During Day of Silence numerous students, who should be participating in class, instead opt to remain silent for the entire day in order to commemorate homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals who have allegedly been “silenced” by society.

Ironically, students are allowed to hijack an entire school day—claiming that they are being “silenced”—despite the fact that there are currently six California legislators who are openly-homosexual.

Three years ago during the homosexual Day of Silence, a Christian high school student in Poway, Chase Harper, decided to wear a t-shirt stating: “I will not accept what God has condemned” and “Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27.” When Harper refused school administrators’ demands to remove his t-shirt, he was suspended from school.

Although Harper was ordered to take his Christian t-shirt off, those students wearing pro-homosexual t-shirts were allowed to keep theirs on.

A lawsuit was filed and, when the case reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the court sided with the school district, ruling that a school has the ability to decide what political and religious positions are permissible on campus. The court also lambasted the view that homosexuality is wrongful and noted the importance of silencing that position, even if students’ free speech must be sacrificed.

This outrageous ruling was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last month the Court vacated the ruling, wiping it entirely from the books. The Ninth Circuit case is therefore no longer the law in the nine states governed by the Ninth Circuit, including California. The Ninth Circuit Court will now have another opportunity to hear the case. But this time it should beware that the U.S. Supreme Court does not look kindly on its anti-religious, anti-free speech, one-sided take on the Constitution.

Karen England is the executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute. This article originally appeared as a CRI Update.