Pasadena Appellate Panel Rules Elementary Schoolers Have Free Speech Rights
PASADENA, Calif. (KESQ) - A federal appeals court in Pasadena has ruled that elementary students have First Amendment free-speech rights in school, reviving the lawsuit of a first-grader who alleges she was punished for giving a drawing referencing the Black Lives Matter movement, and suggesting that ``any life'' matters, to a Black classmate, according to court papers obtained today.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a lower court's grant of early judgment for Capistrano Unified School District and Jesus Becerra, the principal at Viejo Elementary School. The defendants had argued that the drawing was not protected by the First Amendment.
The episode began with a 2021 class lesson about Martin Luther King Jr., when the girl identified in court papers as B.B. drew a picture of herself and her friends holding hands, writing ``Black Lives Mater'' (sic) and ``any life'' on the drawing. She gave it to a classmate as a gesture of friendship, her attorneys said.
When the Black girl's mother raised concerns, Becerra spoke to B.B. and allegedly told her that the picture was ``not appropriate'' and ``racist'' and that she was not allowed to give her drawings to classmates, according to the suit filed in Orange County federal court three years ago.
The principal forced her to apologize, banned her from giving drawings to classmates, and excluded her from recess for two weeks over the drawing, the suit states.
Ruling on Tuesday that schools bear the burden of proving any restriction on student speech is ``reasonably undertaken to protect the safety and well-being of its students,'' the 9th Circuit panel vacated the lower court's judgment for Becerra and sent the case back for further proceedings.
A message seeking comment sent to the Capistrano Unified School District was not immediately answered.
Pacific Legal Foundation, which brought the suit on behalf of B.B.'s mother, commended the ruling.
The decision "affirms what should be obvious: Students don't lose their constitutional rights just because they're young," Caleb Trotter, senior attorney at the foundation, said in a statement.
"The Constitution protects every student's right to free expression. No child should be punished for expressing a well-intentioned message to a friend."
