Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

June 2004 – Three Christian high schoolers in Boone, North Carolina, decided to testify to the sinfulness of homosexuality during a day-long event that promoted that lifestyle at their school. The three students were promptly suspended for their action, but have since been vindicated after contacting the AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP) for assistance.

Mark Austin, Ashley Greene and Ashley Kaylor, all students at Watauga High School, simply wore T-shirts to school that bore Biblical messages about homosexuality and salvation. The school’s principal told them they had to change their shirts or be suspended. The teens refused, and were punished.

Austin, Greene and Kaylor wore their shirts on the “Day of Silence,” an event sponsored by homosexual students in over 2,600 high schools and colleges across the country. The event is promoted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national homosexual group that works to normalize homosexuality in the public school system. 

Ironically, on the GLSEN site, the Day of Silence is said to have been created “to peacefully protest the discrimination and harassment faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in school.” Participating students remain silent during the day, refusing to speak even when spoken to by their teachers. Watauga administrators and staff did nothing to discipline students for their protests.

“On the Day of Silence, the only ones who were forcibly silenced at Watauga High School were those lifting up the name of Jesus,” said CLP litigation counsel Michael J. DePrimo. 

In an interview with AFA Journal, Austin said the principal told him his T-shirt violated school policy. “He said I violated the school dress code because I was being offensive to another gender,” Austin said. When the student asked the principal what gender he’d offended, “He just said that was his interpretation of the policy.”

Austin said he wore the T-shirt to stand up for God. “We’re charged to stand against anything that goes contrary to God’s Word, in a respectful way, of course,” he said. “Really, I just got sick and tired of seeing so many people stay silent when things like this go on.” Austin said that, while homosexuality is wrong, “there’s also forgiveness. Jesus is the answer.”

After the CLP threatened legal action in federal court, the school backed down. Watauga officials said they would expunge the disciplinary action from the students’ records, and admitted that the school’s clothing policy was probably unconstitutional. They asked the CLP for help in revising the policy.