Quietly determined to wear his pro-life shirt

Brian Ramirez of Lawrenceville, Georgia.  Remember his name.  He is an example of quiet determination.

He has a couple of pro-life shirts which he wears to school on occasion.  He decided to wear one of them to his school. Maxwell High School of Technology, on the Students’ Day of Silent Solidarity, a day sponsored by Stand True Ministries (www.standtrue.com) as a way to protest abortion.  One of his teachers objected to the shirt and asked him to take it off or turn it inside out because it was “offensive.” When he refused, he was sent to the office, where he was suspended, in-house, for continued refusal and given a zero for the day.  He was also told that the suspension would be continued for every day he wore the shirt.

The second day he wore the shirt and was again suspended.

However, by this time there was publicity from pro-life groups and by the end of the day the school announced that they had reconsidered.  A spokesperson for the county schools said in an e-mail, “Once the issue was fully investigated, it was determined that there was no substantial disruption in the classroom, nor was there any disciplinary or dress code infraction.”

Brian was therefore allowed back in class, with all mention of penalties removed from his record.

The quote from the county school spokesperson does not refer to the fact that on Brian’s second day of suspension, the school had received a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal group which has a particular interest in freedom of speech issues, stating that the school was violating Brian’s freedom of speech and specifying that the school was to immediately (1) stop prohibiting the shirts, (2) stop the suspensions, (3) remove the zeroes from his grades, (4) allow him to make up missed work without penalty, and (5) remove all reference to the incident from his file.  Furthermore the school was to notify the Alliance Defense Fund that they would immediately do so.

The school complied.

Read more at:
Gwinett Daily Post 10/28/2005 http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_article_id=7951&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2
Stand True Ministries (www.standtrue.com)
Alliance Defense Fund www.telladf.org

Updated on RARTL July, 2006