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In one week, four ADF lawsuits compel four schools to allow pro-life student speech on Roe v. Wade

WINCHESTER, Va., ADAMS, N.Y., CLIFTON PARK, N.Y., and CRESSON, Pa. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund obtained success within the last week in four lawsuits filed to protect public school students who want to tell their classmates why they oppose the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, decided 34 years ago today.

Officials at each school had recently censored the students’ non-disruptive pro-life speech communicated through messages on T-shirts, leaflets, and various forms of symbolic speech, during the “Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity,” a national, student-led event sponsored by Stand True.

“A public school’s property line does not separate a student from his or her First Amendment rights,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.  “The law is clearly on the side of peaceful, pro-life student speech.  These schools either agreed or were ordered by the court to protect the right of pro-life students to express themselves in a non-disruptive manner.”

 

Friday, federal judge Samuel G. Wilson ordered Millbrook High School in Winchester, Va., to allow senior Andrew Raker to distribute pro-life leaflets at lunchtime and between classes today.

Also Friday, a federal court ratified an agreement between Scott Fish and South Jefferson Clarke Senior High School in Adams, N.Y.  The school must no longer prohibit students from displaying pro-life messages on their clothing or distributing pro-life leaflets outside of class. Fish plans to engage in such expression today.

Another federal court in New York Friday ratified an agreement involving a student at Gowana Middle School in Clifton Park, N.Y.  The school has agreed to allow the student on an upcoming day to discuss abortion with his peers, hand them leaflets, and wear clothing with a pro-life message.

Earlier last week, ADF favorably settled Sarah Hollen’s entire case against Penn Cambria High School in Cresson, Pa.  School officials may no longer prohibit her distribution of leaflets to other students.  The school must allow such leaflet exchanges outside of class time and cannot prohibit their distribution simply because school officials object to the pro-life content of the leaflets.

 

 

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.