A Grade-11 Canadian student has been arrested for attending his Christian school.
Josh Alexander claims St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario had banned him from the school because of his religious beliefs and for being a bully.
He had told other students there are only two genders and that students could not switch genders during class debates and on social media.
He publicly stated that biologically male students should not be using girls’ bathrooms.
“I expressed my religious beliefs in class and it spiraled out of control,” he told The Epoch Times.
“Not everybody’s going to like that. That doesn’t make me a bully. It doesn’t mean I’m harassing anybody. They express their beliefs and I express mine. Mine obviously don’t fit the narrative.”
The 16-year-old’s case is being backed by Liberty Coalition Canada whose lead lawyer says the teen’s mission to “seek justice, promote truth, and uphold the rule of law, is rooted in his Christian faith.”
The lawyer wrote to the school principal saying that forcing the student to deny his religious beliefs was discrimination.
The principal’s response was to ban Josh Alexander for the rest of the school year.
The school’s head argued that “his presence in the school or classroom would be detrimental to the physical or mental well-being of the pupils.”
Josh claims he was told he could only return to school if he agreed to not use the “dead name” of any transgender student and excluded himself from classes attended by transgender students.
His lawyers said segregating him from classes was blatant religious discrimination.
They suggest the ban is retaliation for organising a student walk-out over the principal’s refusal to address the concerns of a female student about boys in girls bathrooms.
Josh Alexander intends to appeal his original suspension to the provincial Human Rights Tribunal which would bring his case before a school board panel.
