NEWARK, N.J. – A fourth-grader’s remark about a classmate’s head lice is the basis of a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn New Jersey’s toughest-in-the-nation anti-bullying law.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute, a conservative civil liberties organization, say the fourth-grade boy who was punished by his school for making the truthful – if also rude and unkind – observation about a classmate’s problem with head lice had his free speech rights violated.

The boy, known as L.L. in legal documents, is being represented by the Institute’s attorneys. The lawsuit – Lim v. Board of Education of the Borough of Tenafly – was filed in federal court last December.

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New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education is asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Rutherford Institute attorneys recently countered with a brief of their own, arguing that “enforcement of the anti-bullying act represents a violation of students’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the New Jersey state constitution,” according to a press release from the organization.

The incident that’s triggering the legal back-and-forth happened back in September 2011, when “parents in a 4th grade class were informed that a student in the class had head lice,” NJ.com reports. “A few days later, one student asked another why she had dyed her hair. When she didn’t respond, L.L. stated correctly that she was the student with the head lice.”

Because New Jersey’s anti-bullying statute prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying, school officials required the fourth-grade boy to complete a special sensitivity assignment. That was in addition to the apology his teacher required him to make to the girl immediately after the comment was made.

Rutherford Institute attorneys say that while the anti-bullying laws attempt to crack down on hurtful comments is admirable, its “scope is unconstitutionally broad and the language is too vague to give parents or students adequate notice about what statements will or will not be prohibited,” according to the press release.

“What school officials conveniently seem to keep forgetting is that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate,” Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead said in the press release. “While we all want our schools to be safe, nurturing environments for our children, anti-bullying statutes—well-meaning as they may start out—are Orwellian in nature and inevitably run afoul of the Constitution’s protections for free speech and expression.”

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Whitehead says a better solution to cracking down on bullying would be for teachers to handle the situations discreetly and contact parents to let them know how their children are behaving, Watchdog.org reports.

“It chills free speech,” Whitehead warned. “Kids are going to be afraid to say anything factually.”