(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) In a brief but powerful message, a soft-spoken middle schooler reminded a Massachusetts school board in a loud-and-clear manner that the First Amendment must apply equally to all students.
Liam Morrison, age 12, recalled how he was allegedly kicked out of gym class over wearing a T-shirt that read “there are only two genders.”
It wasn’t that long ago when that statement was settled science, to borrow one of the Left’s favorite terms.
The two school officials who reportedly interacted with him said he wasn’t in trouble but also allegedly claimed that the wording, “was making some students feel unsafe” and was “a disruption in learning.”
Morrison, who hinted that he sensed that the two adults were not receptive to “an opposing view,” noted that staff sent him home after he politely declined to remove the shirt.
“Thankfully, my dad, supportive of my decisions, came to pick me up. What did my shirt say? Five simple words…Nothing harmful. Nothing threatening. Just a statement I believe to be a fact,” he explained to the Middleborough, Mass, School Committee during a public meeting.
The staffers purportedly informed Liam that the wording was “targeting a protected class.”
“Who is this protected class? Are their feelings more important than my rights?,” he wondered rhetorically especially since “Not one person, staff, or student, told me that they were bothered with what I was wearing…No one got up and stormed out of class. No one burst into tears.”
He went on imply that tolerance is a two-way street, a fundamental concept that seems to have become abandoned in education and elsewhere as gender ideology and other aspects of the woke culture have become dominant.
“I don’t complain when I see Pride flags and diversity posters hung throughout the school. Do you know why? Because others have a right to their beliefs, just as I do,” he said.
In another comment that will likely resonate strongly with students and parents, he alluded to ineffectual administrators who often fail to address actual and chronic discipline problems in the classroom.
“I experience disruptions to my learning every day. Kids acting out in class are a disruption, yet nothing is done. Why do the rules apply to one yet not another?”
Morrison’s dignified 2-1/2 minute presentation has received 12 million-plus views on Twitter after it was shared by Libs of TikTok.
“I didn’t go to school that day to hurt feelings or cause trouble,” Liam Morrison insisted.
“I have learned a lot from this experience. I learned that a lot of other students share my view. I learned that adults don’t always do the right thing or make the right decisions. I know that I have a right to wear a shirt with those five words,” Morrison said
“Even at 12 years old, I have my own political opinions, and I have a right to express those opinions. Even at school. This right is called the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
The First Amendment applies to government-run entities, which includes the public school system.
Morrison concluded his eloquent remarks by essentially calling upon the school committee to support free speech for everyone “so we can express ourselves without being pulled out of class…”
The youngster is a seventh grader at Nichols Middle School in the town located about 40 miles south of Boston.
The nonprofit Massachusetts Family Institute announced on social media that it is providing legal support to Morrison and has formally contacted the Middleborough school superintendent on his behalf.
A letter from its staff attorney, among other things, puts the superintendent on notice that Liam plans to wear the same shirt on May 5 and that the organization may take legal action if the school interferes with his constitutional right to free expression.
MFI sent a demand letter to the Middleborough school district superintendent for violating the free speech rights of a 12-year-old student by punishing him for wearing a shirt that said, "There are only two genders."https://t.co/eXn1tCrwTQ pic.twitter.com/y8RXbX3vsP
— MA Family Institute (@MAFamilyInst) May 1, 2023
