by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
One year ago, Elliott Chambers — a 16-year-old student at Woodbury High in St. Paul, Minnesota — was ordered by the school's principal, Dana Babbitt, not to wear a shirt displaying the phrase “Straight Pride” because one student had complained about it. Elliott, along with his parents, filed a lawsuit with the help of the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy.
The suit alleged that the school's promotion of homosexuality and their attempt to silence Elliott's message constituted discrimination. Yesterday the U.S. district court in St. Paul ruled in Elliott's favor.
CLP chief counsel Steve Crampton says he is pleased that Elliott's rights have been vindicated by the court. But at the same time, he is disappointed at the hypocrisy of the school, which allowed the posting of pink triangles, the universal symbol for “gay pride,” but tried to prohibit Elliott's “Straight Pride” message.
“[T]he actions of the school district, even in the aftermath of the preliminary injunction hearing, indicate nothing but an attitude of unwillingness to comply with the law and recognize the most basic rights to free speech in the mouths of students like Elliott Chambers who disagree with their school's politically correct approach on the issue of homosexuality,” Crampton says.
In a press release, the Center says Babbitt acted quickly when a single student complained about being offended by the message on Elliott's shirt. By contrast, the release says, when Elliott's parents told Babbit they were offended by the pink triangles, he accused them of being “homophobes” and refused to remove them. Crampton says that is indicative of what he sees happening in the nation's public schools.
“Schools in America have devoted most of their time and resources to indoctrinating our students in politically correct attitudes and beliefs, and [have] left off the essentials of educating on academics and the ABCs,” he says. “I believe that Woodbury High and most schools in America have thrown out the ABCs and brought in the PCAs — politically correct attitudes.”
Crampton says schools should spend more time on education, and less time on indoctrination.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
