Family Fights for First Amendment Rights of 6-Year-Old Daughter Severely Punished for ‘Any Life’ Matters Drawing

The Pacific Legal Foundation has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court ruling in California that said elementary school students have no First Amendment rights.

A 6-year-old nicknamed “B.B.” in the Capistrano Unified School District in Southern California was introduced to the phrase “Black Lives Matter” in her first-grade class during a lesson about Martin Luther King Jr. After the lesson, the child drew a picture and wrote “Black Lives Mater” (sic), added “any life,” and gave the picture to a classmate. 

The classmate put the picture in her backpack. It was later found by her parents, who became concerned their daughter was being singled out for her race, and asked the school about it.

The school forced B.B. to apologize for her “racist” drawing, banned her from recess for two weeks, and even banned her from drawing pictures for friends. B.B.’s parents were never informed about the incident—and found out a year later.

Pacific Legal attorney Caleb Trotter joined “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the case, filed July 15.

“You can see in their just gross overreaction to the innocent, inclusive use of ‘any life’ that they were teaching this through only one viewpoint, which is the progressive-accepted racial ideology viewpoint, and that’s deeply troubling,” Trotter said.

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