Oregon student Addison Barnes never thought he would create a national uproar when he wore a T-shirt saying "Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co.'' with a direct quote from the president stating: "The wall just got 10 feet taller."
But educators at Liberty High School in the Hillsboro School District felt the pro-wall message created a "hostile learning environment," and they suspended the 18-year-old senior.
Barnes sued, and now a judge has taken the student's side, granting a temporary restraining order allowing him to wear the shirt to class.
"The T-shirt is core protected speech, and walking down the streets of Hillsboro, no state official – petty or grand – would be able to do much about that T-shirt legitimately under the Constitution,'' Judge Michael Mosman said, according to the Oregonian.
"This particular school district has a population that is one-third Hispanic," attorney Peter Mersereau argued for the district.
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He suggested educators on campus could "reasonably forecast the T-shirt would disrupt the school."
But the judge interjected, "So First Amendment protections vary from high school to high school?''
The Oregonian reported:
 ... Mosman found the Hillsboro School District could not justify its censorship. The judge said he balanced constitutionally protected speech with the orderly running of a school.
The school district is entitled to be concerned about the response of other students to the T-shirt, the judge said. But the "thin" court record so far offers little support for the district's argument that the shirt could "substantially disrupt'' the school, he said.
"There's not enough to go on here to show that sort of legitimate concern justifying censorship of this core political speech,'' Mosman ruled.
After the decision, when asked if Barnes would sport the T-shirt before class gets out for the summer, his attorney Bradley Benbrook told the paper, "Yeah, that was the idea.''
As WND previously reported, Barnes' class had been discussing the topic of immigration the morning the controversy over the shirt began.
"The T-shirt was just a representation of my political beliefs," Barnes told KGW News.
The teen's confidence was short-lived, however. During class, Assistant Principal Amanda Ryan-Fear came to the classroom and removed Barnes, directing him to cover the shirt because, she claimed, at least one other student and a teacher had said the shirt "offended" them.
Barnes complied and was sent back to class. But as he sat in his seat, thinking over what had just happened, he decided the assistant principal was wrong and had no right to order him to cover the shirt, so he uncovered it.
"I thought to myself, 'You know this isn't right, this is my First Amendment right to be able to wear this shirt,'" Barnes said.
Later in the period, Ryan-Fear returned to the classroom and observed Barnes and his shirt. She had him removed to her office by a security guard and threatened him with suspension for "defiance," reiterating the claim others were "offended." Given the choice to cover the shirt or be sent home for the day, Barnes went home.
It was not until the following Monday, when Barnes and his father met with Principal Greg Timmons, that the student learned his absence was being treated as a suspension and that the student and teacher who, it had been claimed, said they were "offended" now reportedly said they felt "threatened" by the shirt. While the one-day suspension was vacated, the teen was threatened with future suspensions if he wore the shirt to school again.
Barnes abided by the school's demand, but did wear the shirt briefly in April for an interview in a fellow student's documentary on the First Amendment. When the student submitted the documentary, he was directed by the teacher and the administration to blur or obscure the T-shirt before his school project could be uploaded to the school's online learning platform.
The school's refusal to recognize Barnes' First Amendment right to engage in "a silent, passive expression" on a political and social issue of the day, "unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance" by him resulted in his lawsuit against the high school, the district and Principal Timmons.
The school was also accused of selectively deciding which "offensive" messages are permitted on campus. In the filing, it was noted that one of Barnes' teachers prominently displayed a sign in the front of the classroom stating "Sanctuary City, Welcome Home," a message – like that on the T-shirt – at the heart of the current debate on immigration.
The Oregon chapter of the ACLU weighed in on Barnes' behalf, although grudgingly:
"The school clearly crossed the line when it required a student to remove a T-shirt that voiced support for Donald Trump's border wall or face a suspension, legal director Mat dos Santos told KGW. "This shirt is mean spirited, but it isn't a 'disturbance' under First Amendment case law.
"It is disappointing that Liberty High School decided to censor the student instead of inviting the student body to discuss immigration, the freedom of speech, and the impacts of xenophobic rhetoric. Schools have a responsibility to teach our youth how to engage in thoughtful conversations about difficult and potentially offensive subject matters. Censorship doesn't work and often just elevates the subject the government is trying to silence."
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