Massachusetts middle schooler banned from wearing ‘only two genders’ shirt

[Jessica_Rose]

Massachusetts middle schooler banned from wearing 'only two genders' shirt loses federal appeals case

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/massachusetts-middle-schooler-banned-from-wearing-only-two-genders-shirt-loses-federal-appeals-case/ar-BB1nYw1T?ocid=windirect&cvid=23bc9f296a32444cafa6e028c7f38d8b&ei=13

Story by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald (10 June 2024)

BOSTON — The local middle schooler who was barred from wearing an "only two genders" shirt to school has lost his federal appeals case, as his attorneys consider a Supreme Court appeal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston has ruled against Middleboro student Liam Morrison in the high-profile First Amendment case.

Liam, now in 8th grade, last year was banned by school officials from wearing a shirt to school that read, "There are only two genders." The 7th grader then wore a shirt that stated, "There are censored genders," and again, he was ordered to take off the shirt.

When the Middleboro principal pulled Liam out of class and told him he had to take off his shirt, the principal said they had received complaints about the words on his shirt — and that the words might make some students feel unsafe.

"Middleborough was enforcing a dress code, so it was making a forecast regarding the disruptive impact of a particular means of expression and not of, say, a stray remark on a playground, a point made during discussion or debate, or a classroom inquiry," the appeals court ruling reads. "The forecast concerned the predicted impact of a message that would confront any student proximate to it throughout the school day."