A California mom sues her daughter’s school for allegedly forcing the seven-year-old to make a public apology after she wrote: “Any Life” on a Black Lives Matter drawing.
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Chelsea Boyle’s daughter is a first-grade student at Viejo Elementary School in Mission Viejo and was allegedly forced to apologize after she wrote the phrase “Any Life” on a drawing she created. According to the Daily Mail, the picture displays the words’ Black Lives Matter’ with four round shapes in different tones of brown, beige and yellow representing diversity within the student body. However, one of the students took a picture of the sign after Boyle’s daughter wrote on it and showed their parents. The parent was reportedly offended by the phrase.
After receiving a complaint from the parent, principal Jesus Becerra allegedly punished the girl by forcing her to publically apologize on the school’s playground to her classmates and teachers. Shortly after, Boyle’s daughter was banned from recess and sat on the bench to watch the other children play.
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The alleged incident occurred last year, but Boyle wanted to spread awareness so another parent wouldn’t have to deal with a similar situation.
‘I was immediately angry, I didn’t know what had happened, I knew it was wrong fundamentally. My daughter’s rights were taken away, and I just started reaching out to find out what compelled speech was. I didn’t know what it was until I spoke to attorneys,’ she explained in an interview with Fox News. Her attorney, Alexander Haberbush, added that every student has the right to free speech and schools shouldn’t punish them for having an opposing opinion.
‘Every single student in this country has a right to free speech. Now those rights are even stronger when a school tries to compel speech – when a school tries to make you say something as opposed to just telling you that you can’t say something. That’s exactly what has happened here. t’s even worse than that because not only was she made to apologize for a totally innocuous drawing, one that I don’t know how you could look at that and see anything but racial tolerance and respect for other races in that picture.But not only was she made to apologize for that, she’s actually been punished on top of it.’
Haberbush further explained that his client’s daughter has ADHD and uses art as therapy for her condition. However, the punishment allegedly stifled her creativity for a bit, but the child is doing great, as told by Boyle.
‘It’s more me, I guess, and my husband that are still upset about this and still don’t know what to do about it, That’s how I’m trying to make my personal change. Her best friend is brown — not black, but brown — and she didn’t understand why she didn’t matter, why her friend didn’t matter. She has another friend that is Japanese; she doesn’t understand.’