Students for Life of America successfully settled a free-speech lawsuit against East Career Technical Academy (ECTA) and the Clark County School District (CCSD) with the help of Thomas More Society and the O’Mara Law Firm. 

What You Need to Know About the Lawsuit 

The lawsuit was filed in September 2022 against ECTA and CCSD with student plaintiffs from ECTA Students for Life of America’s leadership team. 

In 2021, Students for Life at ECTA noticed that their school treated them differently than other student clubs. While other clubs could post flyers in the school hallways and write announcements for the school newspaper, ECTA Students for Life were denied these rights by their school. ECTA Students for Life’s flyers, which said, “I reject abortion,” were considered “too controversial” by their public high school.  

But that’s not all. 

When being interviewed by the media, Plaintiff Felipe Avila, former president of the ECTA SFLA chapter, said he was harassed and threatened in the hallways and online. He was even stalked by a peer, but the school did nothing.  

To watch Felipe discuss the case and his experience of being persecuted as a pro-life student, click HERE.

As a public high school in Nevada, ECTA is required under the First Amendment to respect all student and student clubs’ rights to free speech — but instead, ECTA blatantly ignored and exacerbated the free speech infringements of the ECTA Students for Life of America group. 

After recent developments, ECTA Students for Life will finally be treated with the same privileges and rights as other student clubs.  

“As this case comes to a close, I find peace knowing that the pro-life leaders who come to ECTA will continue to lead the club on equal footing with other student organizations,” said Felipe. “I am forever grateful to Students for Life and The Thomas More Society for their unwavering support throughout these tumultuous years. SFLA and TMS have been by my side since day one. I could not have asked for greater allies over this multi-year period.”  

Students for Life of America strives to help protect all our students’ First Amendment rights. If you want to support our efforts to protect free speech on campuses nationwide, click here. 

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