The lawyer for a local student who was not allowed to wear an “only two genders” shirt to school argued for the middle schooler’s First Amendment rights on Thursday, telling a federal appeals court that the school district censored and “silenced” the youngster.

Middleboro student Liam Morrison, now in 8th grade, last year was banned by school officials from wearing a shirt to school that read, “There are only two genders.” The 7th grader then wore a shirt that stated, “There are censored genders,” and again, he was ordered to take off the shirt.

His lawyer from Alliance Defending Freedom brought his federal free speech lawsuit in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston on Thursday.

The Middleboro school district each year celebrates Pride month, hanging Pride flags and sending the message that there are “an unlimited number of genders,” noted ADF Senior Counsel and VP of U.S. Litigation David Cortman in front of the appeals court.

In response to the school’s view, Liam wore the controversial shirt to Nichols Middle School last year.

“His T-shirt did not target any individual,” Cortman said. “It merely addressed the same subject matter the school had already raised, but a different point of view.”

School officials in response to the shirt told Liam to either take off the shirt or leave school for the day. Liam chose to miss the rest of his classes that day.

“In this case, the situation should have been a teaching moment,” Cortman said. “This should have been a moment… that we teach the students how to debate on controversial topics of the day, and yet that did not happen.”

“They decided to censor him,” the lawyer added. “But what the school cannot do, even though they can share their own views, is decide that only students who agree with those views can speak, but anyone who disagrees should be silenced. And that’s exactly what they did here. The school failed to carry its burden to prove that the speech was not protected.”

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Outside the federal courthouse on Thursday, Liam told reporters that he was singled out last year for “expressing my opinion.”

“This isn’t just about a shirt. It’s about free speech,” Liam said. “All students have a constitutional right to express their free speech without fear of being punished by school officials.”

A U.S. district judge previously ruled in favor of the Middleboro school officials.

When the Middleboro principal pulled Liam out of class last year and told him he had to take off his shirt, the principal said they had received complaints about the words on his shirt — and that the words might make some students feel unsafe.

“Characterizing the statement that ‘there are only two genders’ as it being merely offensive trivializes the significant harm that could occur to nonbinary students who are captive in this classroom looking at it,” Deborah Ecker, the lawyer representing the Middleboro school district, told the appeals court on Thursday.

“… Looking at what the school officials knew about their school, the age of the kids, the LGBTQ community in that school, and the real mental health concerns, their decision to have the plaintiff remove the T-shirt was reasonable,” Ecker later added. “They reasonably could forecast that the message, if he was allowed to wear it in the school and in a classroom, would reasonably cause a disruption to the school work and invade the rights of other students.”

The federal appeals court judges took the matter under advisement.

Middle schooler Liam Morrison was ordered by school officials to take off his “there are only two genders” shirt. (Photo credit Alliance Defending Freedom)