Shawnee Mission schools on the wrong side of free speech lawsuit. It’s time to apologize

The Shawnee Mission School District is headed down an expensive and unnecessary path by fighting a lawsuit involving the free speech rights of students.

The lawsuit claims teachers and administrators improperly interfered with student protests in April. The students, who are understandably concerned about mass shootings at schools, urged elected leaders to address the issue of gun violence.

It was a classic exercise of free speech. Tens of thousands of other students engaged in similar protests that day without incident.

At two Shawnee Mission schools, though, the protesting students were allegedly interrupted, ordered to stop speaking and subjected to discipline by school officials, all for talking about guns. The reaction prompted the lawsuit, filed by students in federal court with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In its response, the district does not argue with most of the facts surrounding the incidents at Hocker Grove Middle School and Shawnee Mission North High School. Instead, the district’s lawyers suggest the censorship was acceptable because the public might have believed the protests were school-sponsored.

The district, the lawyers claim, must remain neutral on controversial subjects.

“There is no question that students, parents, and especially members of the public, ‘might reasonably perceive’ the students’ speech to be school-sponsored,” the district’s lawyers asserted.

It’s an absurd argument. The mere presence of the students on school property — publicly owned property — does not imply district endorsement of their views on anything. No reasonable person would have confused the students’ speech with the district’s.

There’s no evidence that other students were threatened that day or that classes were seriously disrupted. Indeed, the protests might have served as a good opportunity for everyone to explore the sad fact that American children must fear for their lives inside a school.

There was simply no good reason for the schools to interfere with the students’ speech. The Shawnee Mission School District should simply acknowledge that fact, promise not to do it again and offer information to all stakeholders about rights and responsibilities under the First Amendment.

In 2014, students at Lincoln Preparatory Academy in Kansas City turned their backs on then-Gov. Jay Nixon at an assembly. They were protesting the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Then, as in the Shawnee Mission case, teachers overreacted, and the district threatened to punish the students. The ACLU sued.

The case was settled with each side paying their own costs. The students were not punished. Non-disruptive political speech by high school students prevailed.

A similar settlement seems possible now. The district — and the ACLU — should pursue a good faith effort to reach one.

Students in our country are required to learn about the U.S. Constitution. It’s always amazing when school districts teach the document inside the classroom but ignore it in the real world.

The district should continue to seek a settlement of this case. There’s no need to spend money on lawyers and lawsuits to defend what should not be defended.

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 12:38 PM.