A Florida high school student has decided to file a lawsuit after his parking pass was revoked for parking his truck, which was decorated with political messages, in the school lot.
Tyler Maxwell, 18, decorated a large stand-up elephant that his grandfather gifted him with “Trump” branding and red, white, and blue paint and stood it in the bed of his pick-up truck, according to a Fox 11 report. Maxwell said he was just excited about voting for the first time.
After driving to school on the morning of Sept. 14 and parking in the school parking lot, he was pulled out of class and told to move the truck. (RELATED: Teachers Reportedly Demand High School Student Remove Trump Flag From Wall At Home)
Tyler’s parents met with school officials to ask for an explanation for why their son could not park his truck on campus, per Fox 11. After receiving no explanation, Tyler drove to school the next day and had his parking pass revoked.
“It’s a freedom of speech case,” said Maxwell’s lawyer, Jacob Heubert, an attorney with the Goldwater Institute, according to Fox 11. “The question is should a student have to give up his free speech right when he drives onto school property.
“The answer to that is no and the school just needs to realize that,” Mr. Heubert continued.
“We allow political expression by students in the form of a T-shirt or a bumpersticker,” Volusia County Public Schools said in a statement, according to Newsweek. “But large signage is a different situation. A passerby could interpret a large sign in a school parking lot to be an endorsement by the school district.”
“We don’t allow our parking lots to be used for political statements,” the statement added.