Ex-Servite Teen Loses Challenge on Free Speech

An Anaheim high school student who accused female faculty members of “femi-Nazi tactics” and then was ordered to seek counseling lost his legal challenge Wednesday against the school, which he accused of violating his free-speech rights.

Superior Court Judge Frederick P. Horn said that administrators at Servite High School had required Michael Carter, 18, of Huntington Beach to undergo counseling for a series of disciplinary problems, not simply his “femi-Nazi” remarks during a 1993 speech as he was campaigning to be student body vice president.

Horn cited witness accounts that Carter had lied to teachers and cheated on a test by sharing his work with another student and that he was “rude and disrespectful to teachers” in finding the school had a “reasonable if not compelling need” to order counseling.

“The speech, in the opinion of the court, made it clear to the individual employees of the school that they had a serious problem on their hands, and that to ignore it would be irresponsible toward all concerned: the faculty, the administration and Mr. Carter,” Horn said.

He added that since Carter had been recommended for counseling before his speech, making counseling a condition of his further enrollment was not a violation of his free-speech rights.

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Jeffrey Smith, an attorney for the school, said, “I am pleased. I have lived with this case for a long time now, and I know the evidence fully supported the court’s decision. I just regret the school had to go through this unwarranted lawsuit for as long as it did.”

Cecilia Carter, the mother of Michael Carter, said Wednesday they would appeal the decision.

“Naturally, we’re disappointed with the result,” she said Wednesday in a written statement. “But we’re determined to press ahead with the guidance of the Individual Rights Foundation,” which has in the past offered free legal services to the family. “We have every confidence that the Court of Appeals will in the end vindicate our position.”

Horn said even if the school had taken disciplinary action against Carter based on his words alone, that action would be protected because of the need for control at a mandatory event such as a school assembly.

Horn also ruled that while the First Amendment does not protect speech in parochial schools that is contrary to that school’s beliefs, that was not the issue here. Carter’s behavior was.

The administration of the all-boys Catholic school required the teen-ager to undergo counseling after the speech. When he refused, the school refused to let him return in the fall.

The case received widespread attention when national radio personality and archconservative Rush Limbaugh came to Carter’s defense. Limbaugh blasted the school in his syndicated program, charging that the teen-ager was unfairly punished for his political point of view. Limbaugh is credited with coining the term “femi-Nazi” to describe feminists who support abortion rights.

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The school’s president subsequently wrote to Limbaugh to explain that as a Catholic school they do not employ women who support abortion rights.

In December, 1993, Horn denied Carter’s request for a preliminary injunction requiring the school to take him back, saying there was insufficient evidence to suggest that Carter suffered “irreparable harm.”

Carter has since graduated from a public high school and as of June was taking classes at Orange Coast College. Despite his high school degree, Carter said he wanted to return to Servite in hopes of gaining admission to a Catholic university and to send a message to the school about free speech.