ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Ann Arbor Public Schools, Skyline High School Principal Cory McElmeel and Secretary Jefferson Bilsborrow are being sued by David Nielsen, on behalf of his minor child, S.N., and the Skyline Republican Club, for not allowing them to make an announcement on the school’s PA system about opposing Proposition 3, a proposal that will codify reproductive rights and abortion in the Michigan Constitution if passed by the voters on Tuesday, November 8th.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs at Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor say that the school routinely allows student clubs to use the PA system for their morning announcements for causes like promoting Planned Parenthood, Roe v Wade, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingle, Black Lives Matter, climate change and other issues.

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However, when the minor child of Nielsen, S.N., a senior and the president of the Skyline Republican Club, wanted to use the PA to recruit students to help in his efforts to oppose Proposition 3, the announcement was rejected as “too political.”

The lawsuit brings a “civil rights complaint” in order to “protect and vindicate fundamental constitution rights.” The action is brought under the First and Fourteenth Amendments challenging the defendants’ acts, policies and practices, customs and/or procedures which deprived the plaintiffs of their right of freedom of speech and the equal protection of the law.

The lawsuit also says that the Defendants’ actions and policies violate the plaintiffs’ rights under the Equal Access Act which “grants all non-curriculum related school groups equal access rights if a public secondary school, as here, creates a limited forum to be used by at least one non-curriculum related school group.”

The lawsuit says that the defendants denied the plaintiffs the same access benefits, privilege, and treatment that defendants have granted to other non-curriculum related student groups at the Skyline High School based on the plaintiffs’ political purpose and viewpoint and on the content of their speech.

Other groups that have been allowed to use the PA system for their announcements include the National Organization of Women (NOW); the Gender, Sexuality and Romantically Alliance (GSRA), the Black Student Union (led BLM protest), the Student Action Senate (SAS) and more.

The announcement submitted by the Skyline Republican Club on October 21st said, “Are you interested in joining our efforts to protect the health of women and children by joining us in our fight to defeat Proposal 3? If Proposal 3 passes it would eliminate health and safety regulations, legalize late term and partial birth abortion, no longer require a physician to perform abortions and eliminate informed consent laws.” And they gave their email address to contact for more information.

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The plaintiffs were informed that their announcement would not be read due to its “political nature.” An email to the Plaintiffs said “we are not allowed to advertise political activities per AAPS School Board Policy as stated below” and then it added “The Superintendent shall notify any political parties, organizations and/or candidates that they are expressly prohibited from promoting political activities and/or individuals on school property during school hours.”

The plaintiff went to the school to meet with Secretary Bilsborrow and asked why the announcement was rejected. He was told that it was too “political.” The plaintiff pointed out that NOW has been able to advertise its support of Roe v Wade and promote a protest at school and that Planned Parenthood is allowed to actively recruit members in the school and explained that it was confusing why these non-curriculum student groups would be allowed to air their announcement on the public address system while his was stricken.

Defendant Bilsborrow said he did not agree with the plantiffs’s confusion and said “I’m the one who controls the announcements” and “I am not running any political announcements.”

After continuing the discussion about the announcement and the proposal, the lawsuit says that “At this point, Defendant Bilsborrow started to become angry, cutting plaintiff off whenever he tried to continue the conversation. Defendant Bilsborrow said ‘we’re never going to arrive at a common viewpoint because you can’t even understand that your announcement is subjective.’”

After the discussion, on October 28th, Principal McElmeel emailed the plaintiff and ratified Bilsborrow’s decision not to allow the plaintiffs’ announcement.

The lawsuit says that on October 28th in an email, Defendant McElmeel tried to claim that “on the advice of legal counsel” that he was supposed to express that Plaintiff’ ad was not allowed due to finance law – which is a blatant pretense offered seven days after the fact by his legal counsel, after Defendants twice stated for themselves the actual basis of rejecting the announcement, which was its political viewpoint, speech and content.”

The plaintiff’s attorneys say, “Plaintiffs’ student speech involves no payment of finances, no payment of funds, no expenditures and no use of volunteer services” and the announcement didn’t expressly state to vote for or against Proposal 3.

The lawsuit says that the concerns and discussions about Proposal 3 “should not be silenced, especially when the school allows other non-curriculum student clubs to promote their viewpoints, opinions, and concerns on the other side of this very debate” and points out that the defendants approved NOW, for a window of time, to pass out literature in support of Proposal 3 in Skyline High School.

Principal McElmeel didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.