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Two students in Louisiana are allowed to wear Black Lives Matter masks after school board decision

Michael Scheidt

FILE - In this July 11, 2020 file photo, Alycia Pascual-Pena, left, and Marley Ralph kneel while holding a Black Lives Matter banner during a protest in memory of Breonna Taylor, in Los Angeles. Taylor was killed in her apartment by members of the Louisville, Ky., Metro Police Department on March 13. The International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, a prominent law enforcement training group, is promoting a lengthy research document riddled with falsehoods and conspiracies that urges local police to treat Black Lives Matter activists as terrorists plotting a violent revolution. The document contains misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric that could incite officers against protesters and people of color, critics said. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

COVINGTON (BRPROUD) – Suriah and Adian White are again allowed to wear ‘Black Lives Matter’ face masks.

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 White “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 The St. Tammany Parish School Board policy.