A student at Torrey Pines High School near San Diego was suspended because he posted flyers around campus supporting ICE.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression first reported the story.
A few weeks before the school had allowed students to stage a protest against Immigration Customs Enforcement. The kids were allowed to walk out of class. Many held signs with profane messages directed at ICE agents and their mothers: “If You’re an I.C.E. Agent Ya Mom’s a Hoe!!,” and “ICE is KKK spelled differently.”
But the school claimed the student who supported ICE was harassing and intimidating other kids.
The unidentified student tells Fox News he never engaged with any of his classmates. And his flyers simply read, “I Heart ICE – Real Americans.”
“It didn’t make any sense to me, because how can a poster that says ‘I [Heart] ICE – Real Americans’ harass or intimidate anyone?” he asked. “I never bothered anyone or did anything disruptive. All I did was quietly post some flyers.”
But school leaders say the flyers were fighting words and dehumanizing.
“It made me feel like the school wants to punish me and silence me just because administrators think my views are wrong,” the young man told Fox News Digital. “I’m glad the other students were allowed to share their anti-ICE views, but I have every [bit as] much right as they do to share my own. It felt especially unfair because some of their signs used swear words and other epithets while mine was very tame.”
“School administrators can’t pick and choose which opinions students are allowed to express,” said FIRE Supervising Senior Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. “Voicing an opinion which makes others upset is not ‘harassment’ or ‘intimidation,’ it is American democracy in action.”
After the student secured representation from FIRE litigators, the school agreed to expunge the suspension from his record.
Long story short – the school under threat of a federal lawsuit – has cleared the young patriot’s record.
“We’re pleased the school has erased the suspension and will be watching closely to ensure the school respects its students’ First Amendment rights,” said Fitzpatrick. “The law is clear: Public schools must allow students to peacefully express their political opinions.”
Todd Starnes is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and host of The Todd Starnes Radio Show.
