Pro-life student organization sues school district over alleged censorship, bullying

A lawsuit alleges a student pro-life group was singled out for censorship and bullying at a school in Las Vegas.

The Students for Life club at East Career and Technical Academy (ECTA) is suing the Clark County School District as well as school officials for alleged discrimination and censorship based on the group’s pro-life message.

The complaint alleges that Students for Life was prohibited from posting fliers in the 2019-2020 school year because they provided information for an adoption agency and a pregnancy resource center, which constituted promoting outside organizations.

The group’s similar fliers were prohibited during the following school year on the same basis. However, the complaint alleges other student organizations were permitted to distribute fliers with promotions for organizations such as a women’s shelter and a Popeye’s.

In another instance, the organization attempted to put the club’s “Students for Life” banner in an area of the school where other student organizations were permitted to do the same. The banner, which also read, “The Future is Anti-Abortion” as well as “Text LIFE to 53445,” was prohibited from being put up because it was “too professional” and was required to be “handmade.” 

Plaintiff and current college freshman Felipe Avila, who founded the Students for Life club in 2019 as a student at ECTA, argues the school was targeting him, and that the school would often deny requests by pulling him out of class. 

“It came to the point where I would be pulled out of class numerous times a day just to receive a denial, so this was very disruptive to my educational experience on campus,” Avila told FOX5 Vegas. 

Avila also claimed that a pro-choice poster was permitted to be displayed in one ECTA classroom. 

In addition to censorship, Avila reported numerous occasions of bullying he experienced from other students, which the complaint claims the school didn’t effectively address. In addition to cyber-bullying, Avila told station KSNV that a student stalked him, “which the school completely failed to address.” 

Though no longer a student at ECTA, Avila wishes to protect the rights of the club.  

“The biggest goal overall would be to make sure that moving forward, the Students for Life club is having its rights respected, and that the club can continue to operate, but on an equal footing with other clubs,” Avila told KSNV. 

“First Amendment rights should be protected regardless of whether you are pro-life or pro-choice,” he told FOX5, “so as much as this is about protecting pro-life speech it is really … about anyone. We are pushing back, and we want to make sure that students have their First Amendment rights protected.”