Most people have likely never heard of Middleborough, Massachusetts, but a seventh-grader there might just have put it on the map.
Twelve-year-old Liam Morrison is a middle school student who was sent home for the crime of wearing a shirt which said “there are only two genders.” Then after this young whippersnapper had the nerve to ignore the other 103 listed on Wikipedia, he appeared before the Middleborough Public Schools committee to address the matter.
Morrison explained how he was removed from gym class in March by two school officials. Specifically, they informed him that he was making some students feel “unsafe” and that he would need to remove his shirt in order to return to class. After all, schools are no place for such homophobic, bigoted and hateful expression. But after Liam refused to see the light, officials called his father to come get him. And doggone it if his father didn’t support his stand, following which Morrison decided to address the school committee.
Just what was so threatening about his shirt’s five simple words which support a scientific truth? As Morrison calmly put it, “Nothing harmful, nothing threatening. Just a statement I believe to be a fact.” Then he had the audacity to address real substance, a rarity in today’s world.
Who was the protected class Liam was targeting? Were their feelings more important than his individual rights? Morrison explained that he didn’t complain about diversity posters and pride flags on display at the school because others have rights to their beliefs too. How insightful! He added that no one told him they were bothered by his shirt, and no one stormed out of class or broke down over it.
Then Liam spoke about fellow students disrupting his ability to learn every day while nothing is done, a phenomenon increasingly common in most schools across America. Morrison pointedly asked the committee, “Why do rules apply to one but not another?”
He proceeded, “I feel like these adults were telling me it wasn’t OK to have an opposing view. I learned that adults don’t always do the right thing or make the right decisions.”
And he gave the committee a much-needed lesson in civics when he bluntly declared, “I have a right to wear a shirt with those five words. I have my own political opinions and the right to express them, even at school. This right is called the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Morrison closed his remarks by challenging the committee to speak for up for students’ right to express themselves without fear of being removed from class. So disrespectful!
Liam Morrison is wise beyond his years. It’s enough to make one consider whether he is more capable of running a middle school than the so-called adults appointed to do so. For one, 12-year-old Liam was paying attention in science class when he learned that women have two X chromosomes, while men have an X and a Y chromosome. Secondly, young Morrison has a healthy respect for the Constitution, a document that has served us well for nearly 250 years.
Education across America has been bastardized. Long-established facts have taken a back seat to ideas based on false narratives which cater to feelings and emotion, and the ability to call out such practices is regularly met with sanctions. The free flow of ideas which was once central to education and the development of young minds continues to decline as a result.
Yet thankfully, occasionally a student like Liam Morrison provides proof that reason and unexpected wisdom from an unlikely source still exist in a world gone mad.
Mark Figley is a political activist and guest columnist from Elida. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
