Court Upholds Student's Tract Passing Rights

"Niceville High School has revised its student literature distribution policy and has agreed to pay $12,500 in attorney's fees and costs to settle a lawsuit filed by Nicholas Wright, a senior who was suspended for 5 days for distributing religious tracts at school." reported Discovery, a Christian newspaper in Orlando, Florida.

Wright handed out One Way and The Four Spiritual Laws during noninstructional times on campus to friends who wanted them. For this he was suspended for 5 days receiving zeros in each of his classes while suspended. In the 1969 case, Tinker v. Des Monies Independent School District, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "Students [do] not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

"We are glad the school revised its policy, but saddened that it took a federal lawsuit to prompt the school to comply with the Constitution." said Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.


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