A pro-life student in Noblesville, Indiana, is continuing her fight for the right to free speech at her local public high school.
The student, only identified as E.D., initially organized Noblesville Students for Life the summer before her freshman year in 2021. She followed all of her school’s requirements for starting a club and was given approval by administrators—until she created flyers featuring slogans like “I Reject Abortion,” “Defund Planned Parenthood,” and “I Am the Pro-Life Generation.” School officials derecognized the club just weeks later, claiming that it was too political.
But after a federal judge sided with the school district in ruling that the district did not violate students’ free speech when school officials revoked approval for the club and forbade them from posting flyers, attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Charitable Allies filed an appeal on April 24 on behalf of E.D. and the Students for Life club.
“Students don’t forfeit their free speech when they walk into the school building,” said ADF’s Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffman. “All students have the constitutional right to express their ideas without fear of being silenced by school officials and having their clubs derecognized. This isn’t just about a flyer—it’s about a public school telling a high schooler that she can’t express a message that’s important to her.”
In the initial lawsuit against the school district, E.D.’s attorneys alleged that the school district violated her 14th Amendment rights to association, freedom of speech, due process and equal protection under the law, in addition to several other violations.
The complaint also pointed out that other clubs featured flyers with polarizing imagery, like a mural depicting fists in the air—a symbol often associated with the Black Lives Matter movement and Marxism. Other clubs at the school include the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Noblesville Young Democrats, Young Republicans, and Police Explorers.
Above: Pro-life students with Students for Life of America rally outside the United States Supreme Court in 2018.
Photo: Evan Golub / ZUMA Wire / Alamy Live News