Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) filed an amicus brief before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a first grade student who was retaliated against and silenced for creating an innocent drawing.
The student, who is represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, learned the phrase “Black Lives Matter” through a class lesson. Feeling empathy for a black friend, she drew a picture of them and wrote “Black Lives Matter” followed by the words “any life.” The friend thanked her for the drawing and put it in her backpack. Later, when the friend’s parent saw the drawing, the parent complained that the friend was being singled out for her race. The school took swift action, forcing the student to apologize, banning her from drawing any more, and making her miss recess for two weeks.
In its amicus brief, SLF explains that a student’s freedom of speech does not end when she is on school grounds. Only in limited circumstances, such as when speech causes a material and substantial disruption among other students, can a school intervene and limit speech. But that was not the case here.
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The student’s drawing did not create any sort of disruption on school grounds that might warrant intervention from the school. Her friend was not upset by the drawing and even thanked the student for it. The friend was also confused when the student was later told to issue an apology for the drawing. Even the parent who complained to the school about the drawing eventually retracted her complaint when she learned of its innocent nature.
Instead, the school abused its power by ignoring the nature of the drawing and the lack of disruption it caused. It ran with the parent’s initial complaint, allowing it to set the school on a reactionary course against the student by retaliating against her and silencing her future expression in the form of drawings.
The school’s harsh and unnecessary reaction was an egregious violation of the student’s First Amendment rights. SLF is urging the Ninth Circuit to remedy it.