CV NEWS FEED // Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is backing an Indiana high school student’s legal challenge of how her school shut down her pro-life club because it was accused of “being too ‘political.’”
“Students don’t forfeit their free speech when they walk into the school building. All students have the constitutional right to express their ideas without fear of being silenced by school officials and having their clubs derecognized,” ADF stated in a May 8 news release.
In April, ADF joined legal firm Charitable Allies’ appeal of a federal court’s decision that had sided with the public school in the case, E.D. v. Noblesville School District.
In 2021, a freshman student at Noblesville High School (NHS) in Indiana started a pro-life club aimed at “[raising] awareness and [generating] discussion about the abortion issue while also doing something about it through volunteering,” according to the news release.
The freshman who started the club, who is referred to in the news release as “E.D.,” received official approval of the Noblesville Students for Life club from the principal after going through the school’s required steps. The club gained 30 member sign-ups at the fall activities fair soon after.
E.D. made a flyer about the club’s upcoming meeting that included photos of students outside of the U.S. Supreme Court holding signs that read, “Defund Planned Parenthood,” “I Reject Abortion,” and other, similar statements.
School administrators told her that she needed to remove the picture that referenced Planned Parenthood because it was “political,” and that if she refused, she could not post the flyer.
ADF noted that there was no written policy prohibiting the flyer.
E.D. met with an administrator again about the flyer, but shortly after, the principal derecognized the club.
In December 2021, Charitable Allies filed a lawsuit on behalf of E.D. in federal court, but the court later sided with the public school. Charitable Allies appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in March 2024. In April, ADF lawyers joined Charitable Allies in the Court of Appeals to represent the pro-life club and E.D.
ADF noted in the news release that other clubs at the school include the Campus Crusade for Christ, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Noblesville Young Democrats, and Young Republicans.
“This isn’t just about a flyer—it’s about a public school telling a high schooler that she can’t express a message that’s important to her,” ADF stated in the news release.