ALLENDALE, N.J. — For the second year in a row, Northern Highlands Regional High School officials are blocking students’ efforts to promote the Day of Truth. In 2006, administrators backed down on their prohibition of the event after Alliance Defense Fund attorneys sent a letter to the school on behalf of student Jason Aufiero. This year, ADF attorneys are filing suit.
“Once again, school officials are attempting to strip students of their First Amendment rights,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “Nearly 40 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that free speech rights do not come to a screeching halt at the schoolhouse gate. This principle applies with full force to students attending Northern Highlands Regional High School.”
Aufiero and other members of the school’s Christian Club have been repeatedly thwarted in their attempts to promote the Day of Truth, which occurs on April 19 this year. Club members are asking to hold their activities the following day in order to coincide with the day of their scheduled club meeting.
With more than 5,000 students already registered this year, the Day of Truth is an opportunity for Christian students to respectfully present a different viewpoint than students participating in the Day of Silence, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.
Officials told Aufiero that he and the Christian Club could not engage in any expressive activities regarding the Day of Truth. Club members requested to distribute literature regarding the Day of Truth to students during non-instructional time, to have an announcement on the Day of Truth read over the school’s loudspeaker, and to wear Day of Truth T-shirts.
School officials continue to support the activities of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance Club, which expresses support for the homosexual agenda via the Day of Silence event, which occurs on April 18 this year. In 2006, school officials had agreed to end their ban on Day of Truth activities after they were contacted via letter by ADF attorneys (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3774).
A copy of the complaint filed by ADF attorneys in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in
Aufiero v. Northern Highlands Regional High School Board of Education is available at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/AufieroComplaint.pdf.
“It is unconstitutional for school officials to bar the Day of Truth while at the same time welcoming the Day of Silence with open arms,” Tedesco said. “They cannot be permitted to continue engaging in viewpoint discrimination against Christian students.”
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
www.telladf.org www.dayoftruth.org