Middleboro student sues. Why Liam Morrison says his 'two genders' shirt protected speech
MIDDLEBORO — Twelve-year-old Liam Morrison and his family filed a lawsuit against the town of Middleboro and school officials after he was sent home from school twice for wearing a controversial shirt that school officials said broke the dress code.
Morrison's attorneys announced Wednesday his family filed a federal lawsuit against the town for violating his First Amendment right to freedom of speech during school.
In March, the middle school's principal and a school counselor pulled Morrison, a seventh-grade student at Nichols Middle School, out of his gym class and told him to change his T-shirt that read "there are only two genders." He declined and was sent home.
On Friday May 5, Morrison wore the same T-shirt with the words "only two" taped over with the word "censored."
“This isn’t about a T-shirt; this is about a public school telling a seventh grader that he isn’t allowed to hold a view that differs from the school’s preferred orthodoxy,” said Tyson Langhofer, director of the Alliance Defending Freedom Center for Academic Freedom, in the announcement of the lawsuit Wednesday afternoon
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“Public school officials can’t censor Liam’s speech by forcing him to remove a shirt that states a scientific fact. Doing so is a gross violation of the First Amendment," said Langhofer, the senior counsel on the Morrisons' lawsuit.
The Middleboro Town Manager and Superintendent Carolyn Lions did not immediately respond when The Enterprise contacted them for comment Wednesday.
Which court will be hearing the lawsuit?
Liam Morrison "by and through his father and stepmother" filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Eastern Division on Wednesday, May 17.
The lawsuit asks the court to issue an injunction barring the school department from banning Morrison from wearing his T-shirt or others like it; a declaratory judgment that the school's dress code is Unconstitutional; attorneys fees; and "actual land nominal damages" in an unspecified amount.
Morrison appears before the Middleboro School Committee
Morrison spoke in front of the Middleboro School Committee at a meeting in April and said that the school violated his right to freedom of speech.
“I don’t complain when I see pride flags and diversity posters hung throughout the school," Morrison said at the meeting on April 13. "Others have a right to their beliefs just like I do.”
Read more: Free speech or hate speech: Middleboro student sent home for second time may sue school
The next Middleboro School Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 18.
Why the Middleboro School District said he can't wear the shirt
District officials told Morrison's attorney Whiting that Morrison's T-shirt violated the school's dress code because the message was classified as hate speech. The school staff told Morrison it targeted a protected class of students.
"Liam and his parents have decided to take legal action because we believe this is a clear violation of his First Amendment rights," said Whiting, an attorney for the Massachusetts Family Institute.
The district's dress code says that, “Clothing must not state, imply, or depict hate speech or imagery that target groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification.”
Why Liam Morrison wears the shirt
"He wore the shirt to school to peacefully share his belief, informed by his scientific understanding of biology, that there are only two sexes, male and female, and that a person’s gender—their status as a boy or girl, woman or man—is inextricably tied to sex," the attorneys' announcement said.
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"ADF attorneys explain in the lawsuit that Middleborough school officials have adopted one particular view on the subject of sex and gender: that a person’s subjective identity determines whether a person is male or female, not a person’s sex," the announcement said.
It continues: "They have expressed this view through their own speech and instituted annual, school-wide events celebrating their view and encouraging students to engage in their own speech on this subject—so long as the students express the school’s favored viewpoint. School officials have also created and implemented a speech policy which they admit permits students to express viewpoints supporting their view of gender identity but forbids students from expressing a contrary view."
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Middleboro MA student sues school, says t-shirt message is free speech
