Saturday, October 27, 2007

Court reverses decision on anti-harassment training

LOUISVILLE - An eastern Kentucky school district's anti-harassment policy constituted a "chill" on a student's free speech rights, so the student should be able to pursue nominal damages, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

The three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based court, in a 2-1 vote, decided that the Boyd County school district's policy effectively barred Timothy Allen Morrison's ability to profess his Christian beliefs and opposition to homosexuality. The ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Judge David Bunning for a trial on damages.

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, joined by Judge John R. Adams, wrote that the allegation of a policy stifling free speech is enough to allow Morrison to seek damages. To make his case, the judges said, Morrison must show that the policy would "deter a person of ordinary firmness" from exercising free speech.

Joel Oster, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., Christian law group that represented Morrison, said the ruling left him "ecstatic."

Sharon McGowan, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented gay and transgender students in the case, applauded the ruling. McGowan said the ruling recognizes that schools can't violate anyone's free-speech rights.

"Our students have always been about promoting dialogue," McGowan said. "They have never been looking to suppress other people's views."

A message left Friday afternoon at the Boyd County Board of Education was not immediately returned.

Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over the anti-harassment training, claiming the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality.

Morrison was never punished under the policy, a fact noted in Judge Deborah Cook's dissenting opinion. She said Morrison suffered no actual harm from the policy.

This from the Cincinnati Post.

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