The answer is NO. The School can’t arbitrarily forbid your child from using expressions, forgetting that he or she is entitled to freedom of speech and freedom to believe.
In January of 2023, in the state of Mississippi the case of
Booth v. Simpson County School District, before the federal, court was settled.
Background: Lydia Booth is a third-grade student at Simpson Central School. Consistent with the school’s COVID-19 guidelines, Lydia had been wearing a face mask to school for several months, including a mask, with the phrase “Jesus Loves Me.”
Other students used their masks to express themselves also, for example, wearing masks with sports team logos and the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”
On October 13, 2020, Lydia was pulled aside by an school administrator and forced to remove and replaced her mask. Lydia’s mother, Jennifer, learned that her daughter was singled out and immediately researched the school’s policy, finding that it did not prohibit messages on masks.
After Jennifer questioned these policies through social media and spoke with school officials, the school then changed the policy in an attempt to justify their discrimination against Lydia’s religious expression. The parents filed a federal lawsuit against the school for violating Lydia’s First Amendment rights.
US Constitution First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Jennifer Booth communicated repeatedly with school officials, pointing out that the school’s handbook had no policy limiting her Lydia’s religious expression, but protected her speech, consistent with the Mississippi Student Religious Freedom Act and the First Amendment.
A school official responded with a copy of the school’s plan addressing the district’s response to COVID-19. But the official’s response included retroactive modifications, including a ban on religious messages on face masks, that were not published in the original version. Obviously, the intention of the policy was to single out the little girl. Therefore, parents sue the school to defend their daughter’s First Amendments rights.
As a result of the lawsuit, filed in November 2020, the district has changed its policies to be viewpoint-neutral for political and religious expression, as the First Amendment requires and guarantees even for minors.