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CV NEWS FEED // A Massachusetts student and his parents are appealing to the US Supreme Court after his middle school prohibited him from wearing a shirt with a statement affirming that there are only two genders.
According to court documents, Liam Morrison wore a shirt that said “There are only two genders” to John T. Nichols Middle School in Middleborough in March 2023, when he was in seventh grade. The court documents noted that the public middle school promotes LGBT ideology in “curriculum, events, and speech,” while fellow students are permitted to wear pride gear.
Morrison decided to wear the shirt because he wanted to start “a meaningful conversation on gender ideology,” according to court documents. He wanted to “protect other students against ideas that L.M. considers false and harmful; and show them compassionate people can believe that sex is binary,” the document states.
Students reportedly had no reaction to his shirt, but one of Morrison’s teachers reported him to the school’s administration. Heather Tucker, the school’s principal, refused to let Morrison return to class with the shirt on.
“L.M. couldn’t change the shirt in good conscience, a decision his father supported, so he was forced to go home and miss classes that day,” the document stated.
Morrison’s parents’ efforts to resolve the situation with the school were futile, as was Morrison’s public appeal to the school committee, the governing board that enacts and enforces policies regarding student expression.
Morrison protested the school’s actions a few months later in May, this time wearing the same shirt with a piece of white tape over the words “only two.” He wrote “censored” on the tape, making the shirt read “There are censored genders.” He was once again told to take the shirt off, and he and his parents sued shortly after with the help of legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
The school’s attorneys argued that requesting Morrison to take off his shirt was consistent with Supreme Court precedent, which states that students’ First Amendment rights must be applied “in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.”
ADF attorney David Cortman commented in a news release about the suit, “Students don’t lose their free speech rights the moment they walk into a school building.”
“This case isn’t about T-shirts; it’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” he said.
Up to this point, courts have sided with the school, and Morrison now asks the Supreme Court to hear his case. According to USA Today, the court could decide before the end of the month whether or not to hear it.
