High school student claims his freedom of speech was violated after MAGA hat censored in yearbook
School officials in Littlestown, Penn. are investigating after two "Make America Great Again" hats were censored in a high school yearbook. Littlestown High School administration said in a statement that the censorship of the pro-Trump apparel was a "mistake" that was not noticed before printing.
One student involved believes that the censorship was a direct attack on his First Amendment rights.
"I just think that whoever did this doesn't like Trump," 16-year-old Jeremy Gebhart told Fox43.
Gebhart and his friend wore their MAGA hats to show support of President Donald Trump during their school's spirit week in October. A photo taken of them at that time made it to the yearbook, with the noticeable edit.
"We were like they blurred our hats out!" said Gebhart.
His mother, Lorraine Gebhart, was also not pleased with the photo edit.
"I was infuriated because he wears that hat because he supports our president," she told the station. "He's not doing anything illegal he's wearing a hat of support."
Gebhart theorizes the censorship was the act of a person who was using their freedom of speech to silence his. "It's ok to disagree with peoples views, but what's not OK is taking your freedom of speech and using it to take away someone else's," he said. “Everybody has First Amendment rights, freedom of speech and they are allowed to think what they want and say what they want but they aren’t allowed to take that away from other people."
Christopher E. Bigger, Superintendent of Schools, released the following statement regarding the incident: "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."
While it is still unclear who made the final decision to blur the hats' message, Gebhart has a message for the perpetrator. "You did not silence us."
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