COVINGTON, La. (BRPROUD) – A couple of St. Tammany Parish siblings are again allowed to wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ face masks at school after getting in-school suspension over them last month.
Suriah White attends William Pitcher Junior High School and Adian White goes to Pine View Middle School in Louisiana.
Last month, 13-year-old Suriah “was told that her mask violated the school district’s policy that notes “styles of dress and grooming should never be such that they represent a collective or individual protest,” according to the ACLU of Louisiana.
Pine View Middle School was then notified that Suriah’s sibling was wearing the same mask.
Both students received in-school suspension.
That is when the ACLU of Louisiana jumped in and contacted the St. Tammany School Board.
“Students do not lose their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse doors,” said Bruce Hamilton, ACLU of Louisiana senior staff attorney. “As their mother pointed out to administration officials, the students are not engaging in active protest by wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ masks—but even if they were, school officials cannot constitutionally prohibit non-violent protest.”
Suriah and Adian White were subsequently granted an exemption to the St. Tammany Parish School Board policy.
