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A teenager at Ardrey Kell High School received permission from a teacher to paint a memorial to the late conservative leader Charlie Kirk on the school’s “spirit rock.”
The unnamed student recruited her parents along with several classmates to memorialize Charlie by painting the phrases “Freedom 1776” and “Live Like Kirk – John 11:25” on the giant rock.
Later that night she got word that school officials in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina had ordered staffer to paint over the phrase, “Live Like Kirk – John 11:25.”
School Calls Cops on Conservative Teen
The following day, school leaders sent out a campus-wide email accusing her of vandalism and announced that law enforcement was conducting an investigation. The teen was summoned to the front office where she was forced to write a statement. They also demanded that she turn over her cell phone. Her parents were never notified.
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Several days later, school officials unveiled a Spirit Rock Speech Code that only allowed “positive school spirit” and messages that “uphold the inclusive values of our school community,” allowing the officials to subjectively decide what speech is “positive.” It also explicitly bans students from expressing religious messages on the spirit rock.
When the officials formally concluded that the student, her parents, and her friends had not committed vandalism, they quietly closed the investigation with no apology and then released a statement saying they never accused or investigated her of anything.
Well, that’s not good enough.
The teenager and her parents filed a federal lawsuit against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education alleging that her constitutional rights were violated and her speech was censored. The teen is being represented by Alliance Defending Freedom.
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“No student should be censored, punished, and shamed by school officials simply for sharing her views,” said ADF senior counsel Travis Barham. “Charlie Kirk boldly defended open and respectful discourse on school grounds literally until his last breath, and this courage inspired many across the country, including the student who painted the message on Ardrey Kell High School’s spirit rock.”
School Approved Black Lives Matter Artwork
What’s even more disturbing is that the school allowed students to post a number of other messages on the rock, including an endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Barham said they are urging the court to hold the officials responsible for violating students’ constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, and due process.”
“[School officials] have unconstitutionally censored [the student]’s speech that the First Amendment protects, retaliated against her for exercising her First Amendment rights, adopted new policies that violate her First Amendment rights, violated the unconstitutional conditions doctrine, ignored her Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, and have deprived her of due process and equal protection of the laws,” the lawsuit states.
ADF attorneys filed G.S. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. Dowling PLLC attorney Craig D. Schauer, one of more than 5,000 attorneys in the ADF Attorney Network, serves as co-counsel for the family.
The Dept. of Education should immediately step in and freeze all federal funding to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District. Conservative students don’t surrender their constitutional rights when they walk through the schoolhouse door.
If the school board won’t defend free speech, they don’t deserve a penny of our tax money.
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