Dispute over student organization draws eye of anti-abortion group

The nation’s largest student-led anti-abortion organization has claimed Hampton-Dumont High School Principal Steve Madson violated a student’s free speech rights by preventing her from forming an official anti-abortion club at H-D.
     Lawyers representing Students for Life of America contest that Madson infringed on senior Isabell Akers’ First Amendment rights when he denied her club’s application for official student organization status in 2013. According to a letter sent by legal council Thursday, Madson denied Akers’ request because he didn’t want the school picking sides on the issue of abortion. Akers’ group was recognized as a “noncurriculum-related organization” following the initial rejection, but wasn’t considered official under H-D code.
     The letter urged the school to reconsider its decision and approve Akers’ request to “establish, publicize and actively run a pro-life student group” at H-D.
     “There is no legally acceptable reason to classify Isabell’s club differently from any of the multitude of other non-curricular, fully organized clubs at Hampton-Dumont High School,” wrote attorney Jocelyn Floyd.
     Read the full article in the April 22 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.