The free speech rights of first graders are at the center of an ongoing legal fight in California.
In a March 10 opinion, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lower court’s previous ruling in favor of a school district accused of violating a student’s First Amendment rights by punishing her for a Black Lives Matter drawing. The decision sends the case back down to the district court for further legal proceedings.
A White student at Viejo Elementary School in Mission Viejo, California, identified only as B.B. in court documents, gave the drawing to an African American classmate, identified as M.C., after a class reading about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2021, the court said in its opinion.
B.B. “felt bad” that “black people … were put in a worse position,” the opinion said. The drawing depicted “all her friends holding hands” along with the words “Black Lives Mater (sic) any life.”
“B.B. did not know that ‘Black Lives Matter’ had any particular meaning but included the phrase because it was at the end of the book her teacher read to the class,” the court said.
M.C.’s parent complained to Principal Jesus Becerra, saying that “while we can appreciate the sentiment of Black Lives Matter, my husband and I do not trust the place where the ‘any life’ is coming from.”
In response, Becerra “allegedly told her (B.B.) that the picture was inappropriate and racist” and prompted her to apologize to the other student, the opinion said. B.B. testified that her recess was taken away for two weeks over the incident, though Becerra denied that any such punishment took place and that he described the drawing in that manner.
B.B.’s mother was unaware of the matter until nearly a year later. She filed a complaint to the school district, which said there was not enough evidence that B.B. was punished for the drawing, according to the opinion.
She then filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that Becerra violated B.B.’s First Amendment rights.
The district court determined the drawing was not protected speech under the First Amendment and that teachers “are far better equipped than federal courts at identifying when speech crosses the line from harmless schoolyard banter to impermissible harassment,” the opinion said.
The court granted summary judgment, a ruling without a full trial, in favor of the school district.
The appeals court said the lower court made a mistake in doing so, citing the “conflicting evidence about whether Becerra could reasonably conclude that the drawing interfered with M.C.’s rights and whether the actions taken were reasonably necessary.”
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