Two elementary school boys in Oklahoma were reportedly pulled from class and instructed to sit in their schools’ front offices for wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts.
On May 3, Jordan Herbert, the mother of three sons, posted on Facebook that one of her boys, aged 8, who attends Charles Evans Elementary, was instructed on April 30 to turn his Black Lives Matter shirt inside out.
“He was told to turn his shirt inside out by [Denise Brunk], the principal of the school,” Herbert said. “I asked the woman this morning to show me in the school hand book where the dress code says he’s not [allowed] to wear it. Of course she couldn’t show me. She told me when ‘all of this’ first started [when] Mr. Holland (superintendent) said politics were not [allowed] in the school.”
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Later on May 3, Herbert posted that she has spoken with Ardmore City Schools Superintendent Kim Holland for 40 minutes.
“I asked what will happen when I send my son to school in his shirt being that there’s no policy about it,” Herbert said. “His answer they will be asked to change their shirts but if they ‘respectfully’ refuse there’s nothin that can be done.”
Holland said the boys were not targeted for their Black Lives Matter shirts, noting the policy applied to all politically charged apparel.
“It’s our interpretation of not creating a disturbance in school. I don’t want my kids wearing MAGA hats or Trump shirts to school either because it just creates, in this emotionally charged environment, anxiety and issues that I don’t want our kids to deal with,” Holland told the Daily Ardmoreite about the policy for a Wednesday article, adding, “Most of it has not been an issue until this lady here has been angry about it, and I wish she weren’t so upset.”
After the district confirmed there could be no action taken if the students respectfully refused to turn their shirts inside out, Herbert sent all three of her boys to school on Tuesday in matching Black Lives Matter T-shirts, along with notes declining to remove their shirts or turn them inside out. The photos she shared on Facebook showed each shirt was a different color with the words “Black Lives Matter” accompanied by an image of a fist.
She said the two boys in elementary school, one who attends Charles Evans Elementary and another who attends Will Rogers Elementary, were both pulled from class and made to sit in their schools’ front offices for wearing the shirts, while the older student’s day was not affected.
The school’s handbook states that “shirts and tops with ‘sayings or logos’ printed on them should be in good taste and school appropriate” but adds that “the principal shall make the final decision concerning any question referring to the appropriateness of dress.”
The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Holland, Brunk, and James Foreman Jr., president of the Ardmore City School Board of Education, on Friday, according to the New York Times, warning the officials that the policy was a violation of the students’ First Amendment rights. The legal group told the school that it would need to reverse the policy or show how wearing the shirts represented “a substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.”
“Anything less than that would be found to be a violation of the students’ First Amendment rights,” the group said.
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The organization cited the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, wherein the court decided that it was a violation of the Constitution to disallow students from wearing black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the ACLU’s Oklahoma division for a copy of the letter but did not immediately hear back. The outlet also requested to speak with Holland, Brunk, Foreman, and the principal of Will Rogers Elementary, Leann Brumley.
