The forces of political correctness and suppression of free speech have been dealt a defeat at the hands of Liberty High School senior Addison Barnes, and even Telemundo took note.
During its nationally televised morning show, the Spanish-language sister network of NBC reported, with evident reluctance, that a federal district court has upheld Barnes' right to wear a pro-border wall t-shirt, despite the fact that school administrators wanted to prevent him from doing so because the pro-wall message allegedly "contributed to a hostile learning environment."
VANESSA HAUC, NEWS ANCHOR, TELEMUNDO: A student supporter of President Trump will be able to wear a t-shirt which promotes the construction of the border wall. That is the decision of a federal judge following the controversy that was unleashed when school authorities prohibited him from wearing it for the rest of the school year. The school claimed that the message emblazoned on the t-shirt contributed to a hostile learning environment, at a school where almost 33% of the students are of Hispanic origin.
Judge Michael Mosman, appointed to the federal bench in 2003 by President George W. Bush, ruled that Barnes' t-shirt, emblazoned with the words "Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co." is "core protected speech" and that First Amendment protections cannot vary from school to school, depending on who might or might not be offended by that speech.
As Barnes also noted in an interview with ABC News, his high school's attempt to stifle controversial political speech was incongruous, as another of his liberal teachers had previously been allowed to display in a classroom a pro-sanctuary city sign that read "Sanctuary City, Welcome Home."
Below is the transcript of the entire above-referenced report, as aired on the May 31, 2018 edition of the Telemundo morning show Un Nuevo Día.
VANESSA HAUC, NEWS ANCHOR, TELEMUNDO: A student supporter of President Trump will be able to wear a t-shirt which promotes the construction of the border wall. That is the decision of a federal judge following the controversy that was unleashed when school authorities prohibited him from wearing it for the rest of the school year. The school claimed that the message emblazoned on the t-shirt contributed to a hostile learning environment, at a school where almost 33% of the students are of Hispanic origin.
