A Virginia teen is suing her school for prohibiting her from starting a pro-life student group. She claims her constitutional rights have been violated.
In a letter to the student, Colonial Forge Principal Lisa Martin said the club “does not meet the standard of a direct curricular link.”
But David Cortman with the Alliance Defense Fund said other groups like SADD, Young Democrats and Young Republicans are allowed to meet, even though they don’t appear to have a direct curriculum link.
“The pro-life club has as much of a relationship to the curriculum — or probably more — than all these," he told Family News in Focus. "As a matter of fact, the health curriculum teaches that abstinence is the best policy, and that’s exactly what the pro-life club teaches.”
George Mason University Law Professor David Bernstein said he questioned the administration’s reasoning.
“It struck me that principals and other administration officials in high schools just tend to try to avoid any kind of controversy," he said. “They’d just rather suppress anything controversial, and certainly a pro-life organization within the school comes under that general heading.”
Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the student's chances in court look good, if history is a guide.
“The encouraging thing is that the majority of these cases, students are winning," she said. "The precedent is in this student’s favor.”
