California Judge Rules It's Correct To Punish A 7-Year-Old Girl Who Wrote 'Any Life' Over A BLM Sign

Posted • July 19, 2024: California Judge Rules That Teachers Were Correct To Punish A 7-Year-Old Girl Who Wrote 'Any Life' Over A BLM Sign, Judge Says She's Too Young To Have A 1st Amendment 一 California judge rules that teachers were right to punish a 7-year-old girl who wrote ‘ANY LIFE’ over a Black Lives Matter drawing because ‘she’s too young to have First Amendment rights.’ The first grader at Viejo Elementary in Orange County was banned from recess and drawing pictures after she added the words "any life" below "Black Lives Matter" on a picture she drew and gave to a black friend. School principal Jesus Becerra told B.B. her drawing was inappropriate and racist. He also made her publicly apologize and banned her from recess and drawing pictures for two weeks.

The girl's family filed a lawsuit against the Capistrano Unified School District, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated in the 2021 incident. US Central District Court Judge David Card ruled that “students have the right to be free from speech that denigrates their race while at school.” Judge Card said that the drawing was not protected by the First Amendment because of the girl’s age. -- Judge Card wrote: 'An elementary school … is not a marketplace of ideas… Thus, the downsides of regulating speech there is not as significant as it is in high schools, where students are approaching voting age and controversial speech could spark conducive conversation.' - 'a parent might second-guess (the principal’s) conclusion, but his decision to discipline B.B. belongs to him, not the federal courts.'

Card added that 'Undoubtedly, B.B.'s intentions were innocent… B.B. testified that she gifted the Drawing to M.C. to make her feel comfortable after her class learned about Martin Luther King Jr.'