First grader's free speech case over 'Black Lives Mater' drawing upheld by 9th Circuit
The First Amendment rights of a first grader in Southern California who drew a racially sensitive picture and gave it to a Black student were upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco. (Image courtesy of the Pacific Legal Foundation)
The First Amendment rights of a first grader in Southern California who drew a racially sensitive picture and gave it to a Black student were upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco.
On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit overruled a lower court’s decision in favor of a school district that disciplined a student identified as “B.B.” in court documents for creating a Black Lives Matter drawing and presenting it to an African American student.
The 2021 incident involved students at the Viejo Elementary School in Mission Viejo, California, who had recently learned about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., according to coverage by Courthouse News Service. The drawing depicted people of different races getting along underneath the words “Black Lives Mater [sic] any life.”
Following the incident, the parents of B.B. said their child was the target of bullying and harassment, along with being punished by the school. The 9th Circuit judges used as precedent the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, where high school students were allowed to protest the Vietnam War.
“The Constitution protects every student’s right to free expression. No child should be punished for expressing a well-intentioned message to a friend,” said Caleb Trotter, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public interest law firm, in a press release.
See also:
Punishing first grader for ‘Black Lives Mater’ drawing violates First Amendment, appeal argues
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