A California high school student was suspended for allegedly wearing “blackface” to a local football game — but a national civil rights group claims the boy was just wearing eye paint.
The eighth-grader, known only as JA for privacy reasons, was filmed attending a high school football game between La Jolla Middle School and Morse Middle School with dark face paint covering her cheeks and chin on Oct. 13, according to the Foundation for Individuals. Rights and Expression (FIRE).
“We had fun, a great night with no problems,” the boy’s father told Cal Coast News, claiming that a black security guard even encouraged his son to wear more face paint.
But a week after the game, the principal at Muirland High School called the boy and his parents into a meeting to inform them that the student would face a two-day suspension and be barred from attending any future athletic events.
The disciplinary notice said JA “blackened his face at a football match” and described the incident as “offensive comments, intent to injure.”
Principal Jeff Luna also reportedly stated that the face paint was offensive because Morse High School is “predominantly black,” according to Cal Coast News.
A high school student has been suspended and banned from any future sporting events after he was accused of wearing “blackface” at a high school football game. Individual Rights and Expression Foundation
In response, FIRE sent a letter to the principal, alleging he violated the boy’s First Amendment rights, and asking that the decision be overturned.
“Given that the First Amendment protects JA’s unobtrusive expression of team spirit through common style by athletes and fans — despite your inaccurate description of it as ‘blackface’ — FIRE calls on the school to expunge the violation from JA’s disciplinary record and lift it. ban on his attendance at future athletic events,” Aaron Terr, the group’s director of public advocacy, wrote in the Nov. 8 letter.
He argued that “JA’s look mimics the eye black style worn by many athletes,” noting that “such use of eye black began as a way to reduce glare during games, but long ago evolved into ‘little billboards for personal messages and paint strokes war.”
That’s different from blackface, he said, which is “‘dark makeup worn to imitate the appearance of black people and especially to mock or mock black people.’
“It has its origins in racist singing shows featuring white actors who caricature Black people, and generally involves covering the entire face in dark makeup and exaggerating certain facial features,” writes Terr.
“Instead, JA follows the trend of war-paint-inspired athletes who use large amounts of black under their eyes, which has no racial connotations at all.”
Terr also noted that the student wore face paint “throughout the game without incident” and pointed to a landmark Supreme Court case that upheld students’ First Amendment rights.
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“In the seminal student speech case of Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protects the right of public school students to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War,” he said.
“The court clarified that school officials may not restrict student speech based on speculative ‘undifferentiated fear’ that it will cause disruption or feelings or unease or discomfort among students. Instead Tinker requires proof that the speech has or will ‘materially and substantially interfere with the work and discipline of the school.
“There is no evidence JA’s face paint caused a disruption — let alone a material and substantial one — at the football game or at school afterward,” Terr concluded.
“The absence of disruption is not at all surprising, as the sight of fans in face paint is familiar and expected by anyone who has attended a football match or other sporting event.”
He then called on Muirlands High School to reaffirm its “commitment to the First Amendment obligations that bind it.”
Terr requested a response from the school by Nov. 22, but filed another letter with the San Diego Unified School District on Monday after hearing that the district denied his request to overturn JA’s suspension the same day FIRE sent the first letter.
The Post has reached out to the San Diego Unified School District and Principal Jeff Luna for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
