LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Students are taking the Clark County School District and East Career and Technical Academy to court as they claim their First Amendment rights have been violated.
A group of pro-life students with Thomas More Society attorneys filed a complaint on September 29, 2022 in Nevada's United States District Court against East CTA and CCSD on behalf of the Las Vegas high school's "Students for Life" club.
The complaint, according to a release from Tom Ciesielka, says that the school's repeated discrimination against the Student's for Life club violated federal law.
“East Career and Technical Academy is discriminating against the Students for Life Club in violation of federal law. It has unlawfully demonstrated its animus to the pro-life message espoused by the Students For Life Club in numerous ways, including failing to effectively remedy bullying directed against a club leader because of his pro-life views,” explained Thomas More Society Special Counsel Joan Mannix.
The complaint filed details that 1st amendment rights have been violated against East CTA's "Students for Life" club and Felipe Avila, the club's founder and former student leader.
These violations of the United States and Nevada Constitutions sent to KTNV and federal Equal Access Act include:
- Refusal to allow the Students for Life Club to distribute flyers because the leaflets mentioned an outside organization (a pregnancy resource center), despite multiple references to outside organizations in flyers distributed by other student groups
- Rejection of Students for Life Club publication requests for visual graphic inclusion in the East Tech Times student newsletter, despite the inclusion of visual graphics promoting other student groups
- Censorship of Students for Life Club flyers/posters that is clearly content based
- Refusal of a Students for Life Club request to hang a banner in an area of the school building in which other groups and individuals have been allowed to do so
- Exclusion of the Students for Life Club from a school-wide club “summit,” despite inclusion of other student-sponsored groups
“All of these instances of censorship and discrimination violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Nevada Constitution,” said Mannix. “The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate. Additionally, the school’s actions fly in the face of the federal Equal Access Act which requires high schools to treat all student-sponsored clubs equally, irrespective of whether the school agrees with the message of the club.”
“Another very distressing aspect of the entire situation is the school’s failure to address the bullying directed against the club’s founder and former leader, Felipe Avila, which further demonstrates the school’s antipathy toward the pro-life club’s message,” Mannix added. “He was stalked and threatened because of his pro-life views and leadership, but the school failed to take effective steps to address the bullying.”
According to the information provided, Avila sought assistance from Students for Life of America, a national organization that provides support to student pro-life clubs. At the organization’s request, in February 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys sent a letter to the East Career and Technical Academy and the Clark County School District demanding that they cease their unconstitutional and unlawful conduct.
Mannix added, “Having opened a forum inviting speech, it is illegal for high school administrators to censor students based on disagreement with their viewpoint. Instead, they should encourage students to exercise their free speech rights. These defendants, including Clark County School District, Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara, and East Career and Technical Academy and its Principal Trish Taylor, disregarded the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the leaders and members of the school’s Students for Life Club, and they refused to rectify their conduct when called upon to do so. It is frustrating that students must continue to rely on federal courts to protect their First Amendment rights against infringement by their own schools, which, instead of embracing censorship, should be safeguarding those rights and encouraging discussion of divergent viewpoints.”
The full complaint can be found here.
