{"id":1932,"date":"2020-11-06T13:43:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T18:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2020-11-06T13:43:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T18:43:08","slug":"religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6SrfXcqDB8I\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>School officials forced the third-grader to remove her face mask with the phrase \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d Now the Mississippi family is alleging religious discrimination. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Matthew and Jennifer Booth filed a federal lawsuit against the Simpson Country School District in Mississippi after their daughter, Lydia, was forced to remove her mask and replace it with one her school provided, Christian Headlines reports.<\/p>\n<p>Wearing masks is a requirement for all students to help slow the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit says, the school allows \u201cstudents to convey a multitude of messages concerning unlimited topics on their masks\u201d such as \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d and the New Orleans Saints\u2019 logo but forced Booth to remove her \u201cJesus Loves Me\u201d mask, even though the suit says it had \u201ccaused no disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The third-grader could be suspended if she continues wearing the \u201cJesus Loves Me\u201d themed mask. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the family, Christian Headlines reports.<\/p>\n<p>The school\u2019s policy prohibits messages on masks that are \u201cpolitical, religious, sexual or inappropriate\u201d and may be \u201coffensive, disruptive or deemed distractive,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefendants\u2019 censorship of [Booth\u2019s] religious message, and the Religious Speech Policy and practice on which that censorship was based, violate the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,\u201d the suit says.<\/p>\n<p>The suit adds that Booth is a Christian \u201cand desires to share her religious views with her classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The suit says the school\u2019s policy violates Booth\u2019s constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic schools have a duty to respect the free expression of students that the First Amendment guarantees to them,\u201d said ADF legal counsel Michael Ross.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile school administrators face challenges in helping students navigate school life during a pandemic, those officials simply can\u2019t suspend the First Amendment or arbitrarily pick and choose the messages that students can or can\u2019t express,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther students within the school district have freely worn masks with the logos of local sports teams or even the words \u2018Black Lives Matter.\u2019 This student deserves an equal opportunity to peacefully express her beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do you think this student was discriminated against based on religion? Do you think she should be allowed to wear her mask at school?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>School officials forced the third-grader to remove her face mask with the phrase \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d Now the Mississippi family is alleging religious discrimination. Matthew and Jennifer Booth filed a federal lawsuit against the Simpson Country School District in Mississippi after their daughter, Lydia, was forced to remove her mask and replace it with one&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[664,1137,1140,1131,1134],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-covid-19","tag-face-masks","tag-first-amendment-rights","tag-jesus-loves-you","tag-religious-discrimination"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"School officials forced the third-grader to remove her face mask with the phrase \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d Now the Mississippi family is alleging religious discrimination. Matthew and Jennifer Booth filed a federal lawsuit against the Simpson Country School District in Mississippi after their daughter, Lydia, was forced to remove her mask and replace it with one&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-06T18:43:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2020\/11\/jesuslovesme.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"391\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lesli White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask","og_description":"School officials forced the third-grader to remove her face mask with the phrase \u201cJesus Loves Me.\u201d Now the Mississippi family is alleging religious discrimination. Matthew and Jennifer Booth filed a federal lawsuit against the Simpson Country School District in Mississippi after their daughter, Lydia, was forced to remove her mask and replace it with one&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2020-11-06T18:43:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":583,"height":391,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2020\/11\/jesuslovesme.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Lesli White","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html","name":"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-11-06T18:43:08+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-06T18:43:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/4f72f240cbc397de345b4a72c0109413"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2020\/11\/religious-discrimination-school-bans-3rd-graders-jesus-loves-me-mask.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Religious Discrimination: School Bans 3rd Grader\u2019s \u2018Jesus Loves Me\u2019 Mask"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/4f72f240cbc397de345b4a72c0109413","name":"Lesli White","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/lwhite"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/565"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1938,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions\/1938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}