Have you ever been singled out our retaliated against for a shirt you've worn? One teenage boy in Oregon was, and as a result, he was recently awarded $25,000. The boy, Addison Barnes, 18, was a student at Liberty High School in the Hillsboro School District in Oregon when he decided to wear a t-shirt supportive of President Trump to class. The shirt in question said, “'Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co.' with the slogan, 'The wall just got 10 feet taller,' a reference to a speech Trump made about building more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border.”Coincidently, Barnes chose to wear the shirt on the same day that one of his classes was discussing immigration. However, it wasn't long before Barnes was “pulled out of the class and given an ultimatum: Either cover up the shirt with his jacket or get suspended.” He chose the jacket, at first, “but quickly changed his mind” and removed the jacket. As a result, he was suspended. But that wasn't the end of the incident. In May, Barnes filed a lawsuit against the Hillsboro School District, a decision that was praised by the Republican leader of the Oregon House of Representatives, Mike McLane. Commenting on Barnes' decision to sue the district, McLane said:“Political speech, whether popular or not, is protected by the Constitution. High school students have the right to express political views subject to restrictions that must be equally applied to all students.”

President Trump; image courtesy of Shealah Craighead via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Shortly after filing his lawsuit, Barnes spoke out about his decision to wear the shirt and why he refused to cover it up with a jacket. He said:“I thought to myself, 'You know this isn't right, this is my First Amendment right to be able to wear this shirt.' So I took off the jacket and the assistant principal had seen that and sent for a security guard to escort me out of class...I had a teacher who had a pro-sanctuary city poster in her room which was up all year. Yet, as I wear a pro-border wall shirt, I get silenced and suspended for wearing that.”The suit was settled earlier this week between Barnes' attorneys and the Hillsboro School District. According to the settlement, the district will “pay $25,000 for Barnes' attorney fees and Liberty High School Principal Greg Timmons apologized in a written statement” that read:“As an educational institution, Hillsboro School District and each of our schools supports, encourages, and celebrates free speech and reasoned debate. We also have a responsibility to ensure that each of our students feels welcome and safe in our schools so they can effectively learn. This was an instance where we were challenged to do both simultaneously and the decision landed on the side of ensuring student safety. Moving forward, we will continue to use professional discretion to meet both objectives and will actively seek ways to turn sensitive situations into learning opportunities.”Prior to the settlement, district attorneys siding with the school district officials argued that the district had “grounds to suspend Barnes because the shirt created a 'hostile learning environment,' partly because about 30 percent of the school's population is of Latino descent.” Despite their arguments, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman said, “that wasn't an excuse to censor Barnes, noting the district offered little evidence to show the shirt could 'substantially disrupt' the learning environment.”

Sources:

Oregon school district apologizes to student after Trump T-shirt battleStudent Suspended for Trump Border Wall Shirt to Get $25G and Formal Apology