A Christian student from New Hampshire sued his school district for suspending him after he said there are only two genders.
The Daily Wire said the freshman student from Exeter High School insisted that there are two genders out of practicing his faith, which led the district into suspending him from playing football for one game.
"Catholic student suspended from football after allegedly insisting there are two genders. Now he's suing the school district," The Daily Wire tweeted on Wednesday.
While the NH Journal explained that the incident happened during an exchange-off campus with another student. The teen, whose name is said to be M.P. for purposes of confidentiality, has filed the lawsuit at the Rockingham Superior Court with his mother for violation of his rights. Lawyer Ian Huyette, an attorney from Manchester-based non-profit firm advocating Christians, is representing the teenager in court.
The lawsuit particularly cited Article 22 of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights on Exeter High School's violation against M.P.'s free speech. It also pointed out the school's overreach for punishing M.P. when the incident took place outside it's legal vicinity, being an off-campus event.
Cornerstone raised that the school's policy could not be used to "suppress" M.P.'s right to free speech and the court's decision on it would be important since most of the school districts in New Hampshire have already implemented a similar policy.
"The key question before the court will be if Exeter's Gender Nonconforming Students policy, nearly identical to the policy adopted by school districts across the state, can be used to suppress the free speech rights of students who hold dissenting views," Cornerstone underscored.
The Cornerstone revealed in a statement that M.P. spoke about his Catholic beliefs that there are only two genders: male and female and did not force it to the other student he was talking to through an app. The other student then went to the school's assistant principal and complained against M.P, who was then punished.
"M.P. did not harass or demean any student, but simply expressed his views on a contentious cultural issue," the Cornerstone said.
"M.P. did not target or bully any transgender student with his speech," the firm added.
"The student then turned a copy of this text conversation over to Vice Principal Dovholuk, who confronted M.P. with printed copies of the text messages. M.P. was then subject to an athletic suspension," the firm continued.
Dovholuk suspended M.P. from football even though the conversation happened outside of school. The suspension comes in line with the Gender Nonconforming Students policy that Exeter High School adopted in 2016.
The policy mentions that a student who identifies to be a member of the LGBTQ has to be addressed according to the person's given name and the corresponding pronoun that person chooses. This policy then stressed that "the intentional...refusal to respect a student's gender identity...is" considered as "a violation."
Exeter High School reportedly have been on the spotlight recently for a string of student rights violations that parents raised against it at the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office. This included putting markings on student's hands during the school's prom as an indication of vaccination status.
