T-shirt sparks row over religious freedom at Nova Scotia school

Image posted by Swinimer on Facebook

by Mathew Block

Chester Basin, N.S. – A student who was suspended after refusing to remove a Christian t-shirt is vowing to wear the shirt again when he returns to class Monday. William Swinimer, a Grade 12 student at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia, was suspended for five days after ignoring instructions to stop wearing the shirt. It reads “Life is wasted without Jesus,” and is followed by a reference to Philippians 3:8. (“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that that I may gain Christ.” – ESV).

Swinimer says the case is about religious freedom, and that the school shouldn’t forbid him from expressing his beliefs. “That’s my opinion,” he told CTV‘s Canada AM Friday morning, “but under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms I’m allowed to have my opinion and express my opinion.”

The South Shore Regional School Board disagrees. In a notice recently posted on their website, the school board writes that students “may choose to wear clothing that embraces their beliefs.” But, it goes on to say, “it is expected that students will not wear clothing with messages that may offend others’ beliefs, race, religion, culture or lifestyle.” Failure to comply with an admonition to stop wearing a shirt becomes “an issue of non-compliance or defiance” and may result in suspension.

Support for Swinimer is coming from an unlikely source: The Centre for Inquiry (Canada), a national organization of atheists and agnostics, has issued a release defending Swinimer’s right to wear the shirt. “This shirt causes no harm and is a perfectly acceptable contribution to the marketplace of ideas,” said National Communication Director Justin Trottier. “We have consistently defended free speech rights for groups regardless of our agreement on message, including Muslim and Christian ads in public space and censored pro-life debates on campus.”

There are signs that the school board may be backing down. The board reports that it “has invited individuals to participate in a facilitated process to resolve this situation in a manner that is respectful of the rights of everyone involved.”

Update (May 4, 2012 – 7:30 p.m. CST): The South Shore Regional School Board has reversed its decision to forbid William Swinimer from wearing his Christian t-shirt. In a release posted on the school board’s website, Superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake wrote that “the t-shirt is not what matters anymore,” and highlighted a forum to be held Monday on the subject of student expression of beliefs. “It is very important that we move away from a narrow debate about a slogan or message on a t-shirt,” she said, “and on to a broader discussion of how to express our beliefs in a respectful manner and how we deal with concerns about that message.”

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Mathew Block is editor of The Canadian Lutheran.

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