A student is suspended from school for sporting eye black on his face
This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest post by Bob Unruh
A school that suspended a student for wearing black, as athletes do to reduce sun glare, to a school event is now being sued.
Officials at the Center for American Freedom, in collaboration with the Dillon Legal Group, filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District on behalf of J.A., a middle school student, who was disciplined for wearing eye black to a football game.
An announcement from the center charged that Muirlands Middle School Principal Jeff Luna “baselessly” accused a student of wearing “blackface” with the intent to “harm.”
“School administrators should not sacrifice their students’ futures on the altar of cancel culture,” warned Harmeet Dhillon, the center’s president. “No reasonable person could believe that a middle school kid sporting a black eye was intended to intimidate anyone or send a racist message.
He explained, “These baseless allegations only serve to tarnish the reputation of the innocent student and jeopardize his educational future.”
“Without any evidence to support his outlandish claims, JA's director found JA guilty of intentionally causing hate violence, a criminal act punishable by imprisonment in California courts,” said Karen Swigart, an attorney for the Dillon Group. “JA is guilty of nothing more than showing team spirit by “While sporting a well-known black eye style, like hundreds of fans and professional athletes before him, the accusations against J.A. would be laughable if they weren't so hurtful and detrimental to his future.”
“Not a single person said anything that night, not a single social media post, not the police, not the staff, not the African-American security guard who complimented him on his face paint,” the student’s father warned. I spoke to several kids there that night, and one of the boys who was with my son that night was a black kid. The boys didn't even know what blackface was. No investigation was done before they suspended my son and the officials assumed the worst and charged JA with a hate crime for being white at a football game.
Filed Charges School officials brought the charge against the student without evidence and without following their own procedures.
The file confirms that these procedures violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
WND previously reported that the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called for the student's punishment to be repealed.
“Muirlands Middle School has no authority to discipline JA for his non-disruptive and constitutionally protected display of team spirit,” school free speech organization officials said in a letter.
They are asking school officials to remove any mention of the incident from JA's school record and lift the ban on the student's attendance at sporting events.
Furthermore, the school needs to renew its commitment to its “binding First Amendment obligations.”
“Anyone who spends any amount of time watching sports will see players wearing black – black paint or grease applied under the eyes. Traditionally, eye black is used by athletes to mitigate the glare of the sun or stadium lights, but it also has aesthetic appeal.
As one sports analyst said in 2008, “The real reason everyone likes to wear their eyes black is because it looks absolutely cool, like modern war paint.” Some athletes opt for the classic two black lines under the eyes. But for many others, the darker the eye The more, the better.
In fact, JA used black under his eyes and spread across his cheeks, imitating the professional players whose photos FIRE documented.
JA was present at the match, with a black eye, without incident.
“However, about a week after the game, the principal of Muirlands Middle School called JA and his parents to a meeting, where he told them that JA would be suspended for two days and banned from participating in future sporting events for wearing “blackface” to a football game. The disciplinary notice describes the violation. JA allegedly committed “painting his face black at a football match” and the incident is classified as an “offensive comment, intent to harm”.
The FIRE report said this was “unreasonable.”
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