Ignorance, close-mindedness cost an Everett high school $120K

Last November, I brought you the story of Cascade High senior Michael Leal. The Everett teen who sued his high school for religious discrimination.

Not only did Leal win the suit, but the Everett School District is now being ordered to pay more than $120,000 in legal fees.

This all happened because the school wanted to punish Leal from engaging in undeniably protected speech. It appears the school simply didn’t feel comfortable with the speech.

Leal was suspended for preaching. Yes, preaching. He spent his recess and breaks preaching the gospel to fellow students. He also handed out literature that was religious in nature.

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Cascade High School administrators apparently didn’t like the conduct. According to the lawsuit, the school argued he was violating school policy by being disruptive and by handing out materials that he didn’t create himself (which was against school policy). Leal’s lawyer, Brad Dacus, pointed out to KIRO TV that the policy is not a legally-tenable position:

That would make it so that he could not write out the First Amendment and Constitution and hand it to people. That is an obvious problem.

Now, if you recall, there were some initial allegations that Leal was preaching that God hates gay people and that he wasn’t being respectful with his speech; and that’s why I suspect he was really suspended. But Leal told me:

I never said that God hates homosexuals. What I do preach though, about homosexuality, is it is a sin, and just like any other sin, it has to be punished. That punishment is eternal hell fire and unless one repents, turns from their sins and follows Jesus, they shall not see the kingdom of God.

Now you may not like or agree with his message (I don’t like or agree with it). But too bad. He was legally entitled to deliver that message, so long as he wasn’t harassing students.

So he gets suspended, he sues, and he wins. But not only does he win and not only does the school district have to pay for this kid’s legal fees, the judge also said that ridiculous rule that you can’t pass out material you didn’t originally author is unconstitutional.

This is the right decision and the Everett School District, specifically Cascade High School, should be embarrassed by what they did.

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Too often schools are just so completely ignorant about the law. A kid talks about religion, maybe offends people who don’t understand that they don’t get to dictate what other people believe, and all of a sudden we suspend a kid?

Schools are a place where you’re supposed to be exposed to different ideas. High school, in particular, is a place where we should get kids comfortable with the fact that not everyone believes what they believe. And that’s OK.

But instead, too many adults try to protect kids from being exposed to ideas the adults themselves don’t like. Then these kids end up going to college and become hypersensitive to everything and anything that goes against their beliefs, even a little bit.

It’s a disturbing reality, but maybe this new threat that you won’t win these cases in the courts will get schools to be a little more open-minded about speech.