PERSON: Addison Barnes

Hillsboro’s Liberty High School (Oregon)

Student

An Oregon high school student who was suspended over a shirt that touted President Trump’s proposed border wall has agreed to settle his lawsuit after the school agreed to pay $25,000 for his legal fees and have its principal write him an apology.

Addison Barnes, who graduated this year from Liberty High School in Hillsboro, Ore., outside Portland, filed a lawsuit in federal court in May alleging that the school violated his First Amendment rights when it punished him for wearing the shirt to a politics class discussion about immigration. The shirt said “Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co.,” and “The Wall Just Got 10 Feet Taller.”

An assistant principal told Barnes that he needed to cover the shirt because a student and a teacher said it offended them, according to the complaint filed in U.S. district court in Oregon. Barnes was removed from the class and suspended after he refused, though the suspension was later rescinded.

District Judge Michael W. Mosman sided with Barnes and his lawyers in late May, ordering the school to prevent the school district from banning the shirt while the lawsuit was in progress, a sign that the case had merits to succeed.

Hillsboro School District officials said they decided to settle the case to avoid the “cost and disruption” of litigation. The $25,000 will cover Barnes’s legal fees.

— washingtonpost.com