High school censors pro-life club while promoting gay club
On the heels of a public university censoring a pro-life club comes word of a public high school attempting the same.
Intervention by pro-life attorneys helped the University of Alabama quickly see the error of its ways. I expect the same will prompt Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington, to come to its senses as well.
Wilson Students for Life has been having trouble with censorship ever since its founding last year. But when school administrators rejected two Students for Life of America posters (above and below) WSFL chose to promote its club last fall, the group turned to the Thomas More Society legal team for intervention.
On February 11, the Thomas More Society sent Wilson High School principal Dan Besett a letter urging the school to reconsider, reminding it of the federal Equal Access Act, which requires school to give all student groups the same opportunities. The pro-life students had been told their posters were rejected due to a policy that states:
Acceptable posters do not offend staff or students, put others down if they have a different belief/opinion, or otherwise cause disruption. Posters that promote meetings, service projects, events, are the most common at school.
“WSFL’s posters, the administration maintained, would violate this policy because they promote a message rather than solely promoting the group’s meetings,” wrote TMS, noting, “Despite this policy, however, the administration has permitted the Wilson Gay Straight Alliance to hang flyers, for example, promoting homosexual relationships by showing conjoined male symbols and conjoined female symbols and stating ‘Love knows no limits,'” i.e., these (click to enlarge)…
Kudos to WSFL, particularly its founder, Bryce Asberg. It takes real courage to stand up against discrimination in high school settings. Know that this is more than about your situation. You’re helping stop discrimination against the pro-life view and preborn babies in many other schools. Thank you.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Uh, it looks like the LGBT club is following the rules and the pro-life club isn’t. On the LGBT club poster it speaks of the meeting that is being advertised. One the pro-life poster it doesn’t speak of a meeting. All the pro-life club needs to do is add something to the poster saying a meeting time to see if they are being treated equally or not. You can’t claim you’re unfairly discriminated against if you aren’t following the rules and complain about the club that is.
If the school takes down the poster once it follows the rules I agree they have a case of discrimination/unequal treatment.
Deluded Lib Pro-Lifer, I’m sure the club would’ve added the verbiage. If it were that simple, there would be no issue.
Well is there any information that they tried to add the verbiage and were denied? I’m not trying to be contrary for no reason, I just don’t see the evidence that the groups were treated unequally unless there’s evidence that they tried to do the same thing the GSA club did and were denied. I’ve seen a lot of people (of any movement) claim things are censored and it’s found out later that they just didn’t follow the rules, so I’m skeptical. I think the University of Alabama thing was clear cut discrimination, this I’m not sure on without further information.
This is clearly censorship, with the administration hiding behind a “rule” to avoid admitting to the double standard.
The school administration promotes teenage sexual activity and homosexuality. As a result, the school administration does not promote pro-life messages.
The students (and their parents) of both student clubs know this. That is why this is a national story.
Unless the school also took down the “Love knows no limits” fliers, it certainly is a case of discrimination. If one group is allowed to advertise their group’s motto or reason for being, so should the other.
Hans, you can clearly see that the Love Has No Limits sign has meeting information on it, while the pro-life sign does not.
The problem is the school said posters that promote MEETINGS were acceptable. The 2nd sign/poster for the Wilson GSA showed a meeting, the first sign/poster showed an ideology, which is what the school said wasn’t allowed. Therefore, only the sign/poster for the meeting should have been allowed, based on the school’s own policy.
The bigger issue here is that the policy is blatantly unconstitutional. Banning items that “offend staff or students” is the government enforcing a heckler’s veto. Even if the administration were applying the policy evenly by tearing down any and all flyers that might be “controversial” for anyone… I mean, learn the First Amendment, people. How do we expect them to teach high school civics? What a scary thought. We’re talking about people who are 16, 17, 18 years old. Exposure to “offensive” ideas is one of the best things about that age! Or would be, if this high school didn’t have its head so far up its [censored].
Academia is such a funny animal today. We all know that the academic setting is 100 percent liberal and likewise, progressive. Campuses all over the country promote homosexuality and abortion. This is nothing new, but I can clearly see that in this instance, the equal protection of academic freedom and speech was curtailed for the Pro-life group by allowing the “love knows no limits” poster to be displayed. I second Hans on this.
“The bigger issue here is that the policy is blatantly unconstitutional. Banning items that “offend staff or students” is the government enforcing a heckler’s veto. Even if the administration were applying the policy evenly by tearing down any and all flyers that might be “controversial” for anyone… I mean, learn the First Amendment, people. ”
I think that schools have different rules. I remember the controversy over locker and car searches, where it was stated that students don’t necessarily have protections against search and seizure on school grounds. I don’t know what laws would be applicable to posting of posters on school property though. I know that religious/political/viewpoint expressions can’t be censored (as long as it’s not disrupting class) when the students say them, but I don’t know if that applies to actually putting up posters though. It seems that the First Amendment rights are limited in school for minors, how much I don’t know though.
I agree (… with who?) Appease the beast – slap a meeting time up there. February 30th if need be.
“The 2nd sign/poster for the Wilson GSA showed a meeting, the first sign/poster showed an ideology, which is what the school said wasn’t allowed.”
It showed meeting info too. That’s why I’m curious as to whether the pro-life group tried to add meeting info to the Reagan poster or another poster with viewpoints as well. Does anyone have information on whether they tried to put up a poster that wasn’t pure viewpoint, but had info on meetings too?
I found this in a Daily Caller article (don’t know how reliable it is, Daily Caller tends to embellish):
“Asberg, a Wilson freshman, told The Daily Caller that he started the group last year and that the school has not quite known what to do with the group’s message — for example he said, the group has been allowed to post flyers about where they are meeting and about fetal development so long as the word “abortion” was not on the materials.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/19/washington-high-school-censors-pro-life-group-promotes-gay-groups/#ixzz2tnp6qy9b
So it looks like they have been able to post posters with meeting times + messages, and that the reason they are getting their posters torn down could either be because of the word “abortion” or because they didn’t have meeting times on it. I want them to attempt to post the Reagan poster with meeting times and see if it stays up. If it doesn’t stay up, I’ll agree that this is discrimination.
And I do think it’s important that the word “abortion” not be censored, I don’t see how it’s fair to have “gay and straight” as terms used but not “abortion”. I don’t see how, if the school admins are pro-choice, they could find the technical term for what they support offensive. So, I want them to try and put one of the poster up with the word “abortion” in it, see if it gets taken down.
I still don’t see any meeting info in that first photo. And their motto is rather problematic. One person’s “love” can be another’s predatory obsession.
Hans, the meeting info is right there on the Love poster. It says “First Meeting will be Monday 11/13 Room 105”. I can’t be the only person who can see that.
I don’t see any meeting info in that first photo either, Hans.
And the policy states in part: Posters that promote meetings, service projects, events, are the most common at school.
I don’t take that to mean that posters MUST post meeting info but rather that it is more common than not that they do.
None of you can see that? Really? It clearly says “First Meeting will be Monday 11/13 Room 105 [something I can’t quite make out]”. It’s to the right of the GSA logo and under the Love Know No Limits part. I know it’s a grainy photo but it definitely has meeting info.
Oh, I missed it. The meeting place for the prolife poster is way at the bottom:
studentsforlife.org
The organizers have taken the liberty of assuming that students are smart enough to know that they are welcome to meet at that spot at their own convenience. Preferably when all homework is done.
Be there or be square.
Okay good someone else can see it, I’m not completely crazy lol.
I do think it’s important the pro-life kids get their group’s posters up and are held to the same standards that the other groups are. Especially since Washington state doesn’t have parental notification or any other restriction on minors having abortions. If people are old enough to get an abortion in high school, then how can a sign that says “abortion” be offensive? Silliness. I want the kids to put them up with a meeting place and see what happens. It seems to me the administrators are trying to be accommodating (based on Asberg’s statements about previously being allowed to put up other posters), but are failing at that. I hope the national attention will cause them to review their policies and make sure that they aren’t applying them unfairly.
As Jack has pointed out, both the GSA posters advise us that there is a GSA in existence and also that there is a meeting.
Neither of the anti-choice posters do such things. They are simply propaganda pieces.
It’s really quite straight forward.
The real test, Reality, comes if they have tried to put up posters with the word “abortion” and a meeting time, since Asberg claims that they have been censoring the word “abortion”. Which is just silly. The pro-life club is all about opposition to abortion, there is no reason the word should not be used.
I don’t see anything which indicates that its all about censoring the word ‘abortion’.
Its because they don’t promote a group or meeting.
This article is not the only one on the issue, I’ve read different ones. Some of them have Asberg claiming that the admins didn’t want him using the word “abortion”. That’s why I’d like to see him try to put up one of these posters with meeting times on it, see what happens. I’m withholding judgement on how much censorship this is until there is more information.
Deluded,
I saw it in VERY SMALL print off to the right on the first poster…but unless you look very carefully it can be missed, and I missed it the first time. But when you said it was there, I went back and looked…and I think you’re right, it’s there, but the print is so small it’s easy to miss.
I am a part of this pro life group and I can confirm that there are posters up stating the meeting time, place, etc for our club.
Hi Grace. Thank you for the information, I feel vindicated (if you’re who you say). :) Is it true that they don’t want the word “abortion” in posters at your school?
Hey DLPL,
If you want to still be friends on FB, send me a friend request. Let me know if you can’t get my info.
Hey Tyler! I’m not on Facebook anymore, I deleted my account, but if you want to catch up/chat you’re welcome to get my email from Carla and get hold of me that way. Be warned, sometimes I’m awful at writing back (sorry phillymiss, I’m sending you an email today lol) but I’ll eventually get to it! :)
Hey DLPL, It is up to you.. I felt bad that I did not appropriately respond to your FB request. If you’re all good then we can just leave it. If not let me know.
I’m not actually sure what you’re talking about, haha, so I’m sure I’m all good. If you did do anything rude or whatever, I don’t hold grudges anyway so we’re fine.
I do not know personally if the word “abortion” is or is not allowed on the posters. The only stated reason we can not post the said posters is because they are “controversial and offensive”. That is all that I have been notified of, as I was there when they were turned down.
I didn’t do anything very rude. I just ignored your request. Anyways, it was a while ago so I am sure you have forgotten – no big deal. I am glad that you are doing well.
Huh, I don’t remember that Tyler. I don’t remember your last name or trying to friend request you. Obviously it must not have bothered me too much! lol.
It seems that discrimination against some clubs is a widespread problem, btw. If you’re in a liberal area, conservative clubs are more likely to be censored and discriminated against, if you’re in a conservative area the opposite is likely to happen: http://www.christianpost.com/news/nc-high-school-allows-atheist-student-group-after-pressure-from-natl-organizations-114786/
Oh btw Tyler I don’t consider it rude when people ignore other’s friend’s request on social media anyway. I don’t think anyone is entitled to someone else’s attention or space, and if someone doesn’t want to friend someone else that’s their right. So if I did request you and you ignored it I don’t see that as rude at all.
You never tried to friend request me Jack. You asked me to send you my Facebook address through Hans or Carla, or something to that effect. I can’t really remember the exact details. It was a while ago. Thanks for understanding, but the reason I decided to post what I did a few days ago was because I think you are a decent person and having friends like that is a good thing. Take care and have a good weekend.