Vic Ryckaert, and Gregg Montgomery

IndyStar

A conservative legal organization has threatened to sue Carmel Clay Schools after high school administrators took down an anti-abortion club’s posters.

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit headquartered in Florida, claims Carmel High School violated the Constitution when it chose to censor Carmel Teens for Life's poster because another student found it offensive.

"To avoid legal action, please immediately reverse this decision and confirm that the school district will respect the private speech of public school students," Liberty Counsel's Richard L. Mast Jr. wrote in a Dec. 5 letter to Superintendent Nicholas Wahl.

Mast contends that administrators unfairly singled out the student group for its anti-abortion message. He also asserts that the high school has allowed posters supporting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and other political clubs.

The district said its attorney contacted Liberty Counsel and the two sides were trying to settle the dispute amicably.

"Contrary to its conversations with (Carmel Clay Schools), Liberty Counsel chose to air its side of the situation publicly," the corporation said in a statement emailed to IndyStar.

"Carmel Clay Schools’ staff and administration are treating the claims made in this letter very seriously," officials said. "We are reviewing the matter to determine what happened and to respond to our students and community in an appropriate and respectful manner."

Wahl issued this statement late Wednesday afternoon: "Carmel Clay Schools supports the rights of its students to express their opinions and our school clubs are one opportunity for students to do so, as long as they operate within reasonable guidelines. We give serious consideration to any claim that a student’s rights have been violated."

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Liberty Counsel said the student group spent 25 hours making the poster, which including hand-painted hearts and the statement "3,000 Lives Are Ended Each Day."

The students got permission to hang the poster, Liberty Counsel said, but school officials later said it had not been approved.

Administrators, Liberty Counsel claims, also wanted Carmel Teens for Life officers to no longer use the word "abortion" in written and oral communications, including posters and on their Facebook page. On Friday, they asked the club members to sign an agreement barring them from seeking outside legal help.

"The club members were threatened that if they did not sign the agreement immediately the club sponsors would be forced to resign, effectively disbanding the club and excluding it from official recognition," Liberty Counsel said in a news release.

“Schools also may not censor pro-life viewpoints,” Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel's founder, said in a statement. "The actions of the school officials are outrageous. ... We will hold this school and these officials accountable."

The Supreme Court has ruled against public schools in similar "viewpoint discrimination" matters, said John L. Hill, a professor with expertise in political and legal theory and bioethics at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.

"The worst kind of discrimination under the First Amendment is viewpoint discrimination," Hill said.

"If they permit groups to put up posters generally, but single out this one group individually, they can't do that." Public schools "cannot pick and choose which viewpoints get heard."

Court rulings, however, have given public schools some options.

"Schools can limit speech or other forms of expression if it is disruptive and would disrupt the school's education mission," said David Schuman, a professor at the University of Oregon's law school and a former deputy attorney general in the state. "I think what this case is going to come down to is the school's reason for taking down the sign."

For example, if Carmel Clay has rules about student posters, those would put the district "on more solid ground" in a court case, Schuman said. Such rules might include not allowing posters that generate complaints from students who have been emotionally upset and unable to study, or prohibiting speech considered lewd.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.

Call IndyStar producer Gregg Montgomery at (317) 444-6292. Follow him on Twitter: @indystar_gregg.