Minneapolis, Minn., Jun 3, 2008 / 20:31 pm
A woman is suing a Minnesota school district alleging her 12-year-old son’s First Amendment rights were violated when his teachers forbade him to wear a T-shirt protesting abortion.
Jeanne Ibbitson’s son, identified only as “K.B.”, was repeatedly warned by teachers and administrators of his school that he could not wear pro-life T-shirts to school. When he continued to try to wear them, they made him turn his shirt inside out.
"My son kept getting singled out," Ibbitson said. "He should be able to wear those shirts at school, and they decided that he can't. It's not right."
One T-shirt read, "Abortion — Growing, Growing, Gone," another read "What part of abortion don't you understand?" and the third had the words "Never Known, Not Forgotten" on the front, with the text "47,000,000 babies aborted 1973-2008" on the back. Each T-shirt bore photos of unborn children. All the shirts were ordered from the web site of the American Life League, a pro-life group.