A public high school in Pennsylvania is facing criticism after student hats expressing support for President Trump were censored in a yearbook photo.
Two students at Littlestown Senior High School in Littlestown, Pa., were outraged after discovering that someone edited and blurred out their “Trump: Make America Great Again” hats in a photo taken during the school’s spirit week in October.
According to Fox43, when they finally opened their yearbooks this month, they discovered that their hats been blurred, leaving no trace of the MAGA message.
When asked about why he thought the school might have taken this action, one of the boys said it was probably out of hatred for the President.
“I just think that whoever did this doesn’t like Trump,” said 16-year-old Jeremy Gebhart, one of the individuals who had his hat censored. “Everybody has First Amendment rights, freedom of speech, and they are allowed to think what they want and say what they want, but they aren’t allowed to take that away from other people.”
Gebhart’s mother also said the situation was “upsetting” to her, saying she was infuriated after she discovered someone had altered her son’s image to make their own political statement.
“I was infuriated because he wears that hat because he supports our president,” said Lorraine Gebhart. “He’s not doing anything illegal, he’s wearing a hat of support!”
Littlestown School District Superintendent Christopher Bigger apologized on behalf of the yearbook club. “The mistake was not noticed during the editorial preview process prior to print. … It is not the policy or practice of the district to improperly censor speech,” Bigger said in a statement. “It’s ok to disagree with people’s views, but what’s not ok is taking your freedom of speech and using it to take away someone else’s.”
Littlestown Senior High School is in one of the most conservative areas of Pennsylvania. In 2016, more than 65% of voters in Adams County, where Littlestown is located, voted for Trump, while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was unable to garner even 30% of voters.
[Also read: Trump campaign will stick with ‘Make America Great Again’ for 2020]
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
