The battle against censorship became crucial around the same time the Knicks won their last championship: more than 50 years ago. After the Vietnam War, progressive propaganda began to control the political narrative, and conservatives started to see a reality in which their ideas faded into white noise — silenced and censored. But just as the Knicks went on to win an NBA championship after overcoming a 29-point deficit, conservatives are starting to make an incredible comeback of their own.
Last year in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 16-year-old girl painted a school spirit rock commemorating the life of Charlie Kirk with the phrase “Live Like Kirk John 12:15.” Just a couple of hours later, the school board painted over her work and sent a campus-wide email: “All messages [painted on the spirit rock] should reflect positive school spirit and uphold inclusive values of our school community.” For the next three weeks, this young girl publicly faced threats and humiliation and was subjected to a criminal investigation. But she didn’t commit a crime.
“Students don’t leave their faith or their free speech rights at the door when they walk into school,” Gabby Stout, who painted the spirit rock, told the Washington Examiner. “School officials cannot just silence a student because they don’t like what the student says or believes.”
Yet she was silenced.
Unsurprisingly, when Black Lives Matter was painted on the rock, the school didn’t silence those political views. Last November, when students walked out of school in protest of local immigration laws, the school didn’t stop them or force them to undergo a criminal investigation. No, the school actually encouraged students to leave class.
So what made this political message — a tribute to Charlie Kirk — so egregious that it justified criminally investigating a high school girl?
The answer is simple: It couldn’t be justified. The school created a double standard when it cherry-picked which political ideas it could silence. This action denied students genuine freedom of expression by imposing a “political correctness” requirement. The First Amendment protects speech regardless of its content, and to assert a partisan distinction violates the rights of citizens. The only kind of broad “speech” that is explicitly unprotected by the First Amendment is obscenity because it fundamentally lacks “artistic, political, or scientific value.”
“School officials have no business silencing or shaming students for sharing their views,” Stout told the Washington Examiner. “And when they forget this lesson, they can be held accountable, as happened in my case.”
On June 15, 2026, Gabby Stout, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, won a $95,000 settlement from the school board for violating her First Amendment rights.
The school board was forced to see that it is not possible to both protect and silence political views under the First Amendment. It can only do one or the other.
“The government under the First Amendment picks no winners,” Senior Counsel Travis Barham told the Washington Examiner.
Fighting political censorship means preserving something greater than partisan advocacy. It gives our children the opportunity to build a better tomorrow where they can speak, think, and write freely. Condemning this type of censorship shows them that people who silence ideas will face real consequences.
“The Board regrets that the student had this experience,” the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education said in a press release that included updated free speech policies that better protected the First Amendment rights of students in its schools.
“I hope this serves as a warning for schools and that it inspires and empowers students to share their views freely,” Stout told the Washington Examiner.
WE’RE NOT DOING ENOUGH TO FIGHT PORNOGRAPHY
From the principal to the school board, from parents online to the law enforcement officials who investigated her, dozens of people played significant roles in censoring Gabby Stout’s views. This shows how crucial it is for the public to fight for the protection of political speech in public forums. Mass media have had the upper hand for half a century, and without holding censors accountable, they will continue to control the popular narrative.
You don’t come back from a 29-point deficit by playing defense. The Knicks knew that, and now conservatives do too.