California High School Drops Punishment of Student for Pro-ICE Flyers After Inquiry From FIRE
“[T]he problem is that when this student used his First Amendment right to nondisruptively voice his opinion that was contrary to the protesters, they suspended him, and that’s where the First Amendment steps in”
Once the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression got involved in this case, the school suddenly saw the light.
The College Fix reports:
HS student suspended for ‘We ♥️ ICE’ flyers gets discipline expunged after free speech group inquiry
A California high school junior suspended for posting pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement flyers around school in response to an anti-ICE student walkout has had his discipline record rescinded after a free speech group intervened.
In mid-February, the Torrey Pines High School student’s flyers, which read “We ♥️ ICE — Real Americans,” resulted in his suspension for “harassment” and “intimidation,” according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, aka FIRE.
KGTV reports the student said one school official told him the flyers, which were “displayed in a common area where other students have posted political material,” were “demonizing and hateful.”
Two weeks prior during a school-day anti-ICE student protest, several demonstrators held signs reading “If You’re an I.C.E. Agent Ya Mom’s a Hoe!!,” “FUCK ICE,” and “ICE is KKK spelled differently.”
FIRE’s Conor Fitzpatrick highlighted this, saying “They didn’t punish [those] students for engaging in their speech.”
After FIRE sent a letter “requesting documents” regarding the pro-ICE student’s suspension,” the district announced his discipline “was being expunged.”
“[T]he problem is that when this student used his First Amendment right to nondisruptively voice his opinion that was contrary to the protesters, they suspended him, and that’s where the First Amendment steps in,” Fitzpatrick added.
“Airing an opinion that might upset someone isn’t harassment, and it’s not fighting words.”
The student, who “was worried the suspension would impact his college applications,” said he felt “relieved and vindicated.”
He added that he hopes the whole situation “sends a message to other students to ‘not be afraid to stand up for what they believe in.’”
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Comments
The linked article notes that the principal of the school applied for reassignment just days after the FIRE inquiry. Obviously, there is no connection between the incidents…
once again showing and proving that the lefty is in charge
until they are not
Cases like this demonstrate how school personnel usually manage these kinds of events. They think they can control everything like communists and forget that we are still in America where people – even minors – have rights. They are little fascist dictators and their professional days as they know it are drawing to an end. Pull your kids out of public school and do anything but that to educate them.
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