Smithsonian provides ‘immediate training’ after kicking out Catholic school group
Jeremiah Poff
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The Smithsonian Institution required staffers at the National Air and Space Museum to undergo training after a group of Catholic school students were told to remove their anti-abortion hats in order to enter the museum last month.
The incident reportedly happened on Jan. 20, after the annual March for Life, an anti-abortion protest that draws hundreds of thousands of demonstrators every year. Museum staff told the group of students from Greenville, South Carolina, that they could not stay in the museum if they did not remove their matching hats that said “Rosary PRO-LIFE,” according to the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the mother of one of the students.
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In a statement to the Washington Examiner, National Air and Space Museum spokeswoman Alison Wood said the museum apologized to the group members for asking them to remove their hats.
“Asking visitors to remove hats and clothing is not in keeping with our policy or protocols,” Wood said. “We provided immediate training to prevent a reoccurrence of this kind of incident and have determined steps to ensure this does not happen again.”
Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, wrote last month that the museum staff members had “mocked the students, called them expletives, and made comments that the museum was a ‘neutral zone'” when informing the group members that they could not wear their hats.
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“Imagine this is your child being accosted, berated, and kicked out of a museum — that other children are allowed to attend — just because of their beliefs,” Sekulow said. “This is a clear and egregious abuse of the First Amendment, which protects their right to free speech without government interference, and we are ready to take action.”
The National Air and Space Museum disputed the claim, saying, “No one was berated or told to leave the museum.”