School Censored Christian Student from Expressing
Her Religious Views
Against Homosexuality-Ordered to Pay $102,738
Tue, Oct 5, 2004
ANN ARBOR, MI - Detroit Federal District Judge Gerald E. Rosen has
ordered the Ann Arbor Public Schools to pay $102,738 in attorney fees
and costs to the Thomas More Law Center because school officials in
that Michigan community prevented student Betsy Hansen from expressing
her religious views against homosexuality during her high school's
annual "Diversity Week" program.
Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling the
case, commented: "If the Ann Arbor Public School District wants to
continue to promote the
homosexual agenda at the expense of the rights of Christian students,
then this will be the cost of doing business. This case should remind
school
officials that public schools are not a forum for their personal
political agenda."
During the 2002 "Diversity Week" program, Pioneer High School
officials prevented Hansen from expressing her Roman Catholic view
against homosexuality at a "Homosexuality and Religion" panel
sponsored by the school, and also refused Hansen's request to have a
panel member who would express her Roman Catholic belief against
homosexuality. Hansen objected
to the fact that school officials had handpicked religious leaders who
endorsed the school's pro-homosexual agenda.
In response, school officials claimed that Hansen's religious view
toward
homosexuality was a "negative" message and would "water-down" the
"positive" religious message that they wanted to convey-that
homosexuality was consistent with Christianity and that homosexual
behavior is not immoral
or sinful.
The Thomas More Law Center filed a federal civil
rights case against the school district and several officials in July
2002, claiming that Hansen's constitutional rights had been violated.
Last December, Judge Rosen ruled that the school had violated Hansen's
constitutional right to freedom of speech and right to equal
protection, as well as the Establishment Clause.
The judge's 70-page opinion in favor of the Christian
student was highly critical of the action taken by the school to
censor Hansen's speech. The six-figure fee award is a result of that
earlier decision.
Judge Rosen's opinion in favor of Hansen blistered Ann
Arbor School's so-called "diversity" program:
"This case presents the ironic, and unfortunate,
paradox of a public high school celebrating 'diversity' by refusing to
permit the presentation to students of an 'unwelcomed' viewpoint on
the topic of homosexuality and religion, while actively promoting the
competing view. This practice of 'one-way diversity,' unsettling in
itself, was rendered still more troubling-both constitutionally and
ethically-by the fact that the
approved viewpoint was, in one manifestation, presented to students as
religious doctrine by six clerics (some in full garb) quoting from
religious
scripture. . . .
All of this, of course, raises the question, among
others presented here, of what 'diversity' means and whether a school
may promote one view of
'diversity' over another. Even accepting that the term 'diversity' has
evolved in recent years to mean, at least colloquially, something more
than the dictionary definition, the notion of sponsorship of one
viewpoint to the exclusion of another hardly seems to further the
school's purported objective of 'celebrating diversity.'"
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center,
acknowledged the significance of Judge Rosen's ruling: "His ruling
sends a clear message to public schools that insidiously attempt to
advance the homosexual agenda using the Trojan Horse of 'diversity.'
Betsy Hansen's courageous refusal to be silenced is an example to
other Christian students
who are being discriminated against because of their religious
beliefs."
Thanks to Jeanne G. for contributing
this article.
