What’s Coming for Free Speech: Piers Morgan and Students Silenced

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[00:00:00]This week, we introduce you to a group of people who are living proof that free speech is still alive and well in this country. They each made the choice to speak out in the face of criticism, condemnation, and even outright cancellation.

[00:00:17]What they said and why they chose to speak out only on the Dr. Phil podcast this week.

[00:00:31]One of the podcasts I do is something called the real story where I talk about what's going on behind the headlines and give people an idea of what's really happening. And not long ago, I did a real story on a case that really had me upset. a high school senior um in New York, Sabrina, was told she couldn't paint a Bible verse on her own parking spot. Now, this was a tradition at the school on they had a senior day and seniors had assigned parking spots and they could do whatever they wanted. They could long as it wasn't, you know, something horrible or offensive or whatever, they could paint and decorate their parking spot.

[00:01:18]And this this story stirred something in me because as you know freedom of religion is at the very heart of the first amendment. So take a look at a clip from that real story so you can see exactly why this hit a real nerve with me. This is what she submitted. And here are the verses. John 14:6 God is the way, the truth, the light. No one comes to the father except through me. Were you offended by me reading that?

[00:01:49]And then here's Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. This is not about being offended.

[00:02:04]This is about hating the fact that so many people believe in God and let faith guide their lives. Look, you guys on the left, the gap is widening.

[00:02:18]The reason you're not making any headway in getting a foothold is because you're not reading the room. You're not reading the country. You can't cancel God. Ain't going to happen. He was here before you.

[00:02:35]He's here while you're here. He will be here after you. There is nowhere in the Constitution where it says separation of church and state. That's an interpretation. Find it. If you can find that in the Constitution, make a copy and send it to me, please.

[00:02:53]Seriously, you would think after national headlines and public outcry, schools would get it right. But just months later in Colorado, almost the identical thing happened to another student. Another case about a young woman's right to express her faith.

[00:03:12]Another legal battle. And another moment for all of us to ask, where are we drawing the line between protecting religious identity and outright censorship? Well, tonight we're going to dig in to both stories, hear from Sabrina herself as she joins us remotely and talk in studio with her senior counsel for First Liberty, Kesha Russell, about what these cases mean for students, parents, and schools across America. There is a part of the progressive left that is so anti- good, anti- relligion, it has convinced itself that the first amendment is freedom from religion, not freedom of religion. Now listen to these recent headlines. High school bans student from painting Bible verse in personal parking spot. High school senior wins battle to have Bible verse religious messaging on her parking space. I was shocked. Grand Island School District revers his decision allows students religious parking design. Notice how none of these headlines are from major networks.

[00:04:27]That's because they don't cover stories like this. Sabrina at 17 on senior day was wanting to express her love of God, her her belief and share that by following a tradition at their school of decorating her parking space and got a lot of push back and wound up turning to legal help and you guys sent a letter and the letter was very pointed, right?

[00:04:58]What did the letter say?

[00:04:59]>> Well, it essentially said that the school district was violating both the free speech clause and the free exercise clause by preventing Sabrina from putting what she wanted on her parking space when all the other students could pick what they want. You know, the government is not allowed to discriminate against religious messages when it allows private secular messages, which is exactly what was going on here.

[00:05:19]All the other students could write what they wanted. Um, except Sabrina because she wanted to say something religious.

[00:05:25]>> Yeah. And so, First Liberty Institute, which does just this nationwide, pushed back on them. And at some point after that, they moved their position, Soprina, and allowed you to do what you originally wanted to do. Correct.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah.

[00:05:43]>> And were you at all worried about how this would play in school with friends, how people saw you, your reputation? I I know that. Did you start the Bible club there or are you just a member of it?

[00:05:58]>> Yeah, so I started the Bible club. Um, so this wasn't really anything new to me like I was kind of expecting something to happen.

[00:06:09]>> And how did other students react to this? Did they tease you about it, give you grief about it? Were those that aren't overtly religious have comments about it? What happened when you did all of this?

[00:06:25]Surprisingly enough, a lot of students came up to me like during school and asked me about it and they told me that like they agreed with me. A lot of students even agreed with me and told me that they should have let me put what I wanted on the parking spot because it wasn't offensive. So, it actually was really comforting to know that other people are out there and just still maybe too scared to also uh say what's true. But yeah, it was really comforting to know that they also agreed that it should be allowed to put a Bible verse on a parking spot.

[00:06:56]>> Did they tell you this privately or were they supportive publicly?

[00:07:03]>> Oh, it was all privately. Every single person was putting it private, which was understandable, I guess.

[00:07:09]>> Yeah. So, they didn't want to get in the fray, but they would tell you privately, "Hey, I'm glad you're doing this."

[00:07:16]>> Yeah. Yeah. What do you make of that?

[00:07:18]You think people are just afraid to buck authority to buck those in power?

[00:07:25]>> Yeah, I definitely think kids, especially my age, think that they don't have the power to be able to do stuff like make change in their school. So, they just like to, you know, let the other person do it or let someone else deal with it and hope for the best. And I think that needs to change and people my age need to realize that we have more power than we think we do and that we can always um bring change to our schools no matter our age.

[00:07:53]>> Why is it important to fight back about this? What are the constitutional implications of this? Because I think everybody needs to realize how important it is for young women like Sabrina to stand up for this. You know, the Constitution is a contract between the people and the government, right? We give the government just enough power to keep us safe, but not enough power to be tyrants over us. And the free speech clause and the free exercise clause are really important because that's where a lot of times the opposition comes from to the government sometimes. You know, we're allowed to express what we what we feel. We're allowed to believe even if those beliefs conflict with the government. And so it's vitally important that we constantly hold the government to this standard because if we don't, they will stop honoring it.

[00:08:40]And we know that because history tells us that we have to continue to push back. I have a lot of people who ask me, why do you take these cases with parking spaces or um teachers having crucifixes at their desk? Like aren't those just like really small like insignificant issues? But they're not. That's where freedom is born in the every in your everyday life. So if you aren't free to express yourself and be who you are when you go to work or outside or at the grocery store or whatever it is, if you are getting locked up for preaching the gospel on a corner, then we are not free. And so everything we do every single day is how we are able to walk in our freedom. And people like Sabrina, like Sophia, like Marisol Castro in Connecticut, these people are holding the government to the standard that we all need.

[00:09:30]>> Yeah. Now, the first amendment of the United States Constitution is really critical. And it reads in part, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or a bridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of people to peaceibly assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

[00:10:00]Now, so it says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

[00:10:12]What Sabrina was doing was the free exercise thereof."

[00:10:18]>> That's right.

[00:10:19]>> Right. That's right.

[00:10:20]>> And Sabrina, you were in a public school, right?

[00:10:24]>> Yes.

[00:10:26]>> Okay. So, she's in a public school. This isn't a private business. This wasn't something where they can make up their own rules because it's a private enterprise. This is a public school and this is her exercise thereof. And she's just this is a free speech issue. It's an expression of religion issue. This is all over the first amendment, >> right?

[00:10:52]>> And the establishment clause.

[00:10:55]I've written an op-ed about this that's too involved to get into here, but this is not the government is overstepping when they get in and say you can't do this because this has already been dealt with. They're not allowed to make a law to restrict this and they have already said you are guaranteed the right to express and exercise freedom here. How is this not a constitutional violation?

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[00:13:14]I'm saying if someone wants to share their love for the divine, they have every right to do so. And you have the right to ignore that if you want.

[00:13:24]That's called free expression. That's called free speech.

[00:13:29]That's called freedom.

[00:13:31]This is called America. And that's the real story. There's a school in Colorado Springs, Rampart High School, and there's a senior there named Sophia who wanted to decorate her parking spot to reflect her space. And surprise, surprise, the school rejected her design for being religious. and it sparked a legal fight that changed district policy and restored students right to express their beliefs. Thank you so much for joining us, Sophia. I really appreciate you being here and talking about this.

[00:14:11]When this all started, were you surprised that there was push back?

[00:14:17]Yeah, I was honestly really surprised because Rampart is really a very inclusive school and so for them to not have the same rules as every other school in the district, it was just honestly really surprising. My original design was to paint the parable in Luke 15 of the shepherd and the 99 sheep with a Bible verse of 1 Corinthians um 13:4.

[00:14:43]>> Okay? And we're looking at it right now and really creative by the way. A amazing. How did you come up with this?

[00:14:54]The parable of Luke 15 was just a Bible verse and a story that was very near and dear to my heart. It's gotten me through a lot of struggles and stuff like that.

[00:15:05]And yeah, I just wanted to represent something that follows along with my life story on my parking space.

[00:15:12]>> Yeah. And did they pick something out about the design or anything that was offensive to somebody? Did they think somebody's going to drive by that and go, "Oh my god, I'm traumatized." What What What was it that they objected to in the beginning?

[00:15:34]>> They objected to the Bible verse on it just because it it does have that religious imagery on it. Um Yeah.

[00:15:41]And so what's your reaction? What was your reaction when it happened?

[00:15:47]>> I was honestly really upset just because I'd seen other high schools in the district being able to paint religious imagery on theirs and I was just really upset just because Christianity is how I like to express myself and that was kind of something I wanted to leave on my parking space. And so yeah, >> and and this verse that they thought, "Oh, we just can't have that here." If I'm correct, it is love is patient.

[00:16:16]Love is kind.

[00:16:19]That's first Corinthians 13:4. Correct.

[00:16:22]>> Yes.

[00:16:23]>> Now, I I'm I'm sorry.

[00:16:25]>> It's very dangerous, right?

[00:16:27]>> I'm sorry.

[00:16:29]Somebody's got to really be bending over backwards to come up with some way that they're protecting others from driving through a parking lot and seeing that.

[00:16:43]And like, oh my god, what what in the world has gone wrong here? And I I'm sorry. It it really is ridiculous because it it's such an amazing scripture, but even the message >> that she's communicating with the picture and the imagery is amazing as well. The idea that everyone is >> special to God, you know, and even if you leave, he's leaving his entire flock to come and find you. It's such an amazing important message. And the fact that the school district thought there was something wrong with it is really important. And we have to remember these are the people who are teaching our young people how the constitution applies to them even if they don't see it that way. This is the first encounter that students are going to have with the government. And if the government treats religion as if it's supposed to be banned and censored, then those students are going to grow up thinking that that's the way America is supposed to be, that that's the way the constitution is, when in fact that's a lie. These educators are lying to the students.

[00:17:41]There are a lot of people watching this right now, Kesha, and a lot are frustrated. They feel powerless. They feel helpless. They feel in a David and Goliath situation when you're facing a school, a school board, a school district. What's your advice to those people that feel powerless?

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[00:19:24]There are a lot of people watching this right now, Kesha, and a lot are frustrated. They feel powerless. They feel helpless. They feel in a David and Goliath situation when you're facing a school, a school board, a school district.

[00:19:42]What's your advice to those people that feel powerless?

[00:19:45]>> Well, they're definitely not powerless and they're not alone. I think parents and students sometimes they think they're the only ones. They're they're by themselves and they're not. That's why First Liberty is here. But also there are millions of people who are religious in this country and who are going to appreciate you standing up for yourself. You know, my advice really is to for parents is to, you know, communicate with the school in writing so that you have everything that they are saying to you uh on paper because um I hate to say but sometimes people will lie about what has taken place and you want you know all the guidelines that they're referencing and you can always contact First Liberty to ask us even questions. We I would say about half the people I talk to, I'm just answering questions for them. Um and and letting them know, no, you're going, you're doing the right thing, you're on the right track, keep going. And a lot of those, you know, cases don't necessarily turn into litigation matters. But we encourage a lot of people to stand up for themselves. And a lot of those people end up winning because they push back based on, you know, the the advice that we give them and the cases that they've seen from us.

[00:20:54]It is important to get it in writing because as you and I were talking a lot of times they'll say, "Well, our policy is A, B, and C." You ask for a policy or you get a policy manual, there's no policy in there like that at all.

[00:21:08]>> And if they've told you that there is, then you need to get that in writing.

[00:21:15]You need to get in writing that they have misrepresented to you something that is just simply a lie. they've just told you something that's not true, >> right? And you also want to get in the facts sort of solidified in writing too so that you can get their response and if things go forward if you if a law firm has to write a demand letter or there is litigation there's a paper trail because like I've said oftent times in in in a number of cases I've worked in unfortunately all school districts where you get to the point where you're trying to negotiate or settle and they're saying well that didn't exactly happen the way they say it happened. Um, so it it is important to get everything documented and write everything down so that if a lawyer enters the picture, they know exactly what's going on and the school district can't wiggle out of what they've told you.

[00:22:07]>> Sophia, in your situation, the the school announced plans to update district-wide guidelines to permit religious themes on all senior parking spaces. So, this had a ripple effect.

[00:22:22]Not it started just with you and your space, but they announced plans to change things districtwide. So, it's already spreading, right?

[00:22:34]>> Yeah. And I hope it continues to spread.

[00:22:36]I hope I inspired a bunch of other kids who are going through the same thing across the nation and they get to stand up for what they believe in and hopefully this is a nationwide change.

[00:22:47]>> Yeah. And if people realize that just, you know, their own individual case, it does, you know, people do look at it and say, you know what, we got to start making some changes here, right?

[00:22:59]>> Yeah, absolutely. Um, now some school districts and some people are just going to be stubborn. It doesn't matter what the law is, they feel like the law should be something that it isn't. Um, and sometimes people are going to push back, but for the most part, you're going to get a lot of school districts that are going to learn from what has happened because they're going to see sort of the fallout. And Coach Kennedy's case, the ones that actually go to litigation, you've got districts paying millions of dollars for violating someone's constitutional rights. Um, those are the kinds of things that, you know, stick in people's minds when they're leaders in in a school district.

[00:23:32]And I think even as case that seems small like Sabrina's and Sophia's, that shows the school district there is a way to fix these problems before it costs you millions of dollars in legal fees.

[00:23:46]>> We've mentioned Coach Kennedy's case a time or two.

[00:23:50]Give us the quick summary of that case, nuts and bolts of that case.

[00:23:56]>> Yes. So, Coach Joe Kennedy was a high school football coach in Burton, Washington. At the end of um he coached uh high school football at the end of every game, he would go to the foot uh the 50-yard line, say a quick silent prayer to thank God for changing his life. He had a pretty rough life. Um and he was grateful for what he was doing.

[00:24:17]And then the school district told him he couldn't do that anymore primarily because it was in the view of students and they could see him. um and they said that was an establishment clause violation. And so those are the facts there. We lost that case a couple times in uh the Ninth Circuit um which is where California sits um and tends to be pretty liberal um in terms of the decisions that come out of that district. And so we ended up uh having to go to the Supreme Court. We went twice. The second time is when we won um and Coach Kennedy's rights were vindicated. And the Supreme Court essentially said what what actually applies in Sophia Sabrina's case is that we are we not only have the freedom to believe but we have the freedom to exercise our religion in public in our actions every single day. It's not something we have to hide or only confined to a church or only confined to our home. And so those are really important principles that not only apply to Coach Kennedy as an employee of a public school district, but they also apply to all the students as well. Yeah, really big finding. President Trump takes this very seriously, religious liberty in America and he created a presidential commission for religious liberty and I'm very honored to have been asked to serve on that commission and I'm doing so and uh Kesha is very supportive of this and you've been there to the commission and we talk about this fight for religious liberty and let me tell you something the the the the worst thing we can do is get lax about this, right? We can't take this for granted.

[00:25:57]>> We have to fight back because if we've learned anything from history is that, you know, people in power, authority almost always wants to pull those things back. And so the Constitution is is a great marker for us to know, look, the government's taking way more power than they're supposed to. There are things that are God-given rights like the freedom of religion, the freedom to live out your conscience, the freedom to speak, the freedom to assemble. All of those things you listed earlier are things that we have to continue to fight for. If we don't fight for them, we will lose them.

[00:26:27]>> Yeah. And when we see these courageous young women like Sabrina and Sophia that stand up and push back and fight back, that needs to inspire all of us. When we see these young people that have this conviction and you know we talk about the young generation and we say you know they've lost their way and all and then we see these guiding lights like Sabrina and Sophia. I am definitely inspired and I I want to thank I want to thank Kesha Russell from First Liberty Institute and Sabrina and Sophia for being here and talking about this. You know, tonight we saw what happens when two young women decide to stand up for what they believe in. And courage like that keeps our freedoms alive. I mean, it absolutely does. And we need to hear that and find our way to stand up and make sure that we're claiming our rights. And you got to name it to claim it. You you got to know what is important to you and stand up for that and not let those erode or be taken away from you.

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[00:29:53]Piers Morgan is one of the most recognizable voices in journalism and broadcasting. Now, he is the host of Piers Morgan Uncensored, which is described as a global arena for fearless debate, bold opinions, and major high-profile interviews. He is also an author and his latest book, Woke is Dead: How Common Sense Triumph in an Age of Total Madness. Piers argues how wokeism created more division, confusion, and mistrust and discusses what a postwoke future can and should look like. I have this belief that children form their self-image, their belief system about themselves by watching what they do.

[00:30:45]They observe themselves. If they go out and overcome an obstacle, I mean, even if it's a four or five year old kid that gets out of the car, goes up to the school building by themselves, opens that door, goes in by themselves, they observe themselves doing that. If they deal with a bully at school, they watch themselves overcome obstacles in life and say, "Hey, I did that." And so they make that attribution to themselves that I can do that. And when we have these concier parents, these helicopter parents that smooth out the road for all of these kids, they cheat that child out of the opportunity to learn what their capacities are, learn what their capabilities are, and we're not preparing them for the next level of life. What are we going to do with this generation if these parents keep taking away all the challenges and the kid doesn't get a chance to learn that they can do what they need to do?

[00:31:45]>> Well, first thing you do is you abandon and ban forever participation prizes.

[00:31:51]The whole idea of a participation prize is completely laughable. When you get in the real world, when you become an adult, you don't get participation prizes. You don't come last at work and get a prize. you get fired. Uh you don't get prizes if you play professional sport for coming last. You get booted out of the team. That's the cold hard reality of life. I was very lucky. I had I had parents who were unconditionally loving, supportive. My mother gave me a postcard when I was a kid, which I still have on my desk, and it's a hippopotamus flying with a flock of seagulls, and it has the headline or the caption, "Ambition knows no bounds." And that's what you need. You need unconditional love and support from people who will tell you there's no limit to your ambition. But what there is a limit to are your actual abilities. Right? And it turned out I was never going to be a good enough cricketer to be a professional cricketer. I would have loved to have been. But the idea that people would have encouraged me down a path which ultimately would lead to a very dissatisfying life by falsely overplaying my abilities, that is just to me the worst possible thing you can do. It's like taking kids, wrapping them in cotton wool forever, right to the point the real world kicks in. Well, then they're totally unprepared. And then we get we get sort of beused why kids these days, young people, when they get into adulthood, seem so woefully illprepared for it. They're riddled with anxiety. They're riddled with depression. Some of them suicidal. It's appalling. And a lot of it is down to smartphones. And you and I have discussed this before about, you know, how terrible things used to happen when we were young. and we were totally oblivious to them, even if they happened near us. Yeah. Because no ways of finding out this stuff. Now, if a terrible thing happens, there's likely that someone got it on their camera phone and within minutes, the entire world is watching this grotesque video.

[00:33:43]And then you add the wall footage from Ukraine and Gaza and so on. It, you know, these kids' brains are getting scrambled all the time. We've got to give them the mental and physical tools to be able to deal with the actual real modern world. Yeah. Yeah. I really wonder if these parents ever ask themselves, "What's my child going to do when I'm not there?"

[00:34:05]>> Right?

[00:34:05]>> If I pass away, if I become incapacitated or when I die and I'm not there to fix all this, >> what am I going to do? Because these parents are doing this to allay their own anxiety, not to enable their kid to be tougher, smarter, more successful.

[00:34:23]They're doing it to make themselves feel better. and the kids picking up the tab because when mama's not there, when daddy's not there to fight those battles, that kid is not battle tested and they're going to be really paying the price because mom and dad wanted to make themselves feel better. So, they didn't have to worry about little Johnny, but then when they're not there, little Johnny's left on his own and it's going to pay a very high price.

[00:34:49]>> 100%. And that is the core problem. I think we should be in schools with role models who are mentally strong, physically strong, who can show kids what the real world is going to be like and actually prepare them for it. It's a crucial part, I think, of taking care of the next generation. And at the moment, we are failing them.