Attack on the First Amendment: Massachusetts Middle School Student Sent Home for Wearing a T-Shirt That Made Others Feel “Unsafe”

ijr.com

Disclaimer:  This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.

A 12-year-old Massachusetts middle school student spoke at a school committee meeting last month to share his story. 

Liam Morrison, a seventh grader, said that someone from his school sent him home for wearing a t-shirt proclaiming that there are “only two genders.” 

He was pulled from his PE class on March 21 to meet with school officials who told him that people were complaining about the words on his shirt. 

One of the people on staff at John T. Nichols Jr. Middle School in Middleborough, MA, told the seventh grader that his shirt made others feel “unsafe.” 

At the committee meeting, Morrison approached the microphone to recount the incident. 

“They told me that I wasn’t in trouble, but it sure felt like I was,” the boy stated. 

“I was told that I would need to remove my shirt before I could return to class. When I nicely told them that I didn’t want to do that, they called my father.”

“Thankfully, my dad supported my decisions,” Liam said.

“What did my shirt say? Five simple words: There are only two genders. Nothing harmful, nothing threatening. Just a statement I believe to be a fact.”

“I was told that my shirt was ‘targeting a protected class.’ Who is this protected class? Are their feelings more important than my rights?” Morrison asked. 

He went on to say that he has never complained about diversity posters and gay pride flags in school “because others have rights to their beliefs just as I do.”

The boy said that he had not observed anyone, staff or student, who was bothered by the shirt. “No one stormed out of class or burst into tears.” 

On the contrary, some students expressed support and said they wanted to get similar shirts.  

The school officials told him his shirt was a “disruption to learning.” 

“I experience disruptions to my learning every day. Kids acting out in class are a disruption, yet nothing is done,” the boy said. “Why do rules apply to one but not another?”

“I feel like these adults were telling me it wasn’t OK for me to have an opposing view.”

“Their arguments were weak, in my opinion,” Morrison said making eye contact with those on the stage.

“I have learned a lot in this experience. … I learned that adults don’t always do the right thing or make the right decisions.”

“I know I have the right to wear a shirt with those five words. 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.”

“I hope you will speak up for the rest of us so we can express ourselves without being pulled out of class.”

He concluded his time by thanking the committee for its time.

This 12-year-old boy expressed what a lot of Americans think as we see more and more attacks on biological facts and freedom of speech.

He stated straight facts without getting heated. We can all learn something from his courage and fortitude.