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CAIR-OH: Suit Over School Ban on 'Islam is a Lie' T-Shirt
James Nixon's fashion statement did not go unnoticed on Sept. 1 as he stood at his locker at Sheridan Middle School in Perry County.The front of the seventh-grader's black T-shirt proclaimed in white block letters: "INTOLERANT: Jesus said . . . I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14:6." The back of the T-shirt read: "Homosexuality is a sin, Islam is a lie, abortion is murder. Some issues are just black and white!" Spotted by a guidance counselor after third period, the 12-year-old was sent to the vice principal's office, where he was asked to remove the garment or turn it inside-out, James' family says in a lawsuit filed Dec. 3. School officials that day told the boy that the wording was offensive and disruptive. After he politely refused to remove the shirt, according to the lawsuit, his parents were told to take him home and James was threatened with suspension if he returned to school wearing it. The lawsuit accuses the Northern Local School District of violating the boy's rights of free speech and free exercise of religion⊠The school district's code of student conduct forbids clothing "that disrupts the educational process," including dress with "suggestive, obscene or offensive gang-related words and/or pictures..." Executive directors of groups representing Muslims, abortion-rights supporters and gays questioned Nixon's choice of attire. Jad Humeidan, executive director of the Ohio office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, saw dozens of people wearing the same shirt declaring "Islam is a lie" when Operation Rescue/Operation Save America rallied in Columbus in July, principally to protest abortion. "To me, the shirt is very offensive. We have to be careful about hate speech and making sure the civil rights of other students are not violated by persons bringing hateful material into schools," he said Posted by: tipper 2004-12-21 |
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