During spirit week at Littlestown High School in October, Jeremy Gebhart and a friend wore hats embroidered with the slogan, "Trump: Make America Great Again." A photo was taken of the two boys, but when it appeared in the school's yearbook, the photos were altered to blur the hats, WPMT reported
The student and his parent say his 1st Amendment rights were violated. Were their rights silenced though? The students were allowed to wear hats in school. It wasn't until yearbook staff airbrushed the photos a problem arose. It's an interesting debate. https://t.co/tGHdchWQZr
— Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) May 24, 2019
“I just think that whoever did this doesn’t like Trump," Gebhart, 16, told the television station. "We were like, ‘They blurred our hats out!’” Gebhart said.
"I was infuriated because he wears that hat because he supports our president," Lorraine Gebhart, Jeremy's mother, told WPMT. "He's not doing anything illegal. He's wearing a hat of support."
Students upset after pro-Trump hats blurred in high school yearbook photo https://t.co/6LXGpLUDm0 #KMOV pic.twitter.com/3mWQoyqpTr
— KMOV (@KMOV) May 24, 2019
In a statement to the television station, Littlestown Area School District Superintendent Christopher E. Bigger said, “The mistake was not noticed during the editorial preview process prior to print. We apologize on behalf of the yearbook club. It is not the policy or practice of the district to improperly censor speech."
"It's OK to disagree with people's views, but what's not OK is taking your freedom of speech and using it to take away someone else's," Jeremy Gebhart told WPMT. "You did not silence us."
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