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Third Grader Wins Lawsuit After School Banned Her From Wearing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ Mask

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A Mississippi third-grader and her mother are basking in victory following a lawsuit they filed against a local school district over a policy banning her “Jesus Loves Me” mask. The student, Lydia Booth, called the policy “sad” and “confusing,” while her mother, Jennifer, added that she was also puzzled by the policy at the time.

“I was looking around, and all these kids had words all over their masks,” Lydia told Fox News Digital of the pandemic-era policy.

The policy has since been rescinded by the school district, which barred masks that had “religious” or “political” speech after the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Booths by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

“The First Amendment prohibits schools from singling out students for their speech, especially religious speech,” ADF Legal Counsel Michael Ross told the outlet.

“It’s very simple: What the school was doing is a flat violation of the First Amendment,” he noted further.

Fox News Digital added:

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The impetus for the lawsuit was in October 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Lydia wore a mask to school that read “Jesus Loves Me” in the Simpson County School District in Mississippi. “I chose [the mask] because it had my favorite words on it, ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ and it made me feel safe when I went to school,” Lydia, who was in third grade at the time, said, adding that she wanted to share that message with the other students. 

But while she was at school, Lydia was told she could not wear a mask with words on it. The lawsuit notes that Lydia had worn the mask several times before without incident, and other students regularly wore masks with words on them. Several days later, Lydia was asked to remove her “Jesus Loves Me” mask before she went to the school cafeteria. The lawsuit noted that Lydia’s mask caused no “disruptions,” and other students did not object to her mask. 

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Then, the district didn’t have any policy that prevented Lydia from wearing a mask expressive of her religious beliefs, the lawsuit noted. Indeed, at the time, the school’s policy actually said that it “recognizes a student’s right to free speech provided it is exercised in a manner which is not prohibited by law nor disrupts the educational process.”

But within days, the policy was changed to bar “religious” or “political” statements, according to the lawsuit.

“It went from talking to the principal and it being about the dress code, then all the way up to the superintendent, they modified the policy to a ban on religious speech,” Jennifer told the outlet.

While the district no longer requires students to mask up, Jennifer and her daughter are nonetheless happy that they went through with the lawsuit anyway.

“It’s about the little things,” Jennifer told Fox News Digital. “Day to day, you don’t notice a change, but five years from now, you’re going to look back to this day and see how drastically everything has changed.”

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Meanwhile, Lydia told the network that the policy change means she can now continue sharing her religious beliefs with fellow classmates and can wear the mask again if she wants.

“If we have a belief, we have a right to share it,” she said.

Earlier this month after the Biden administration inexplicably extended the COVID-19-related “public health emergency,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced efforts to pass new protections from the COVID-related government mandates and rules for Florida residents. The popular Republican governor described the ability to live free without the government forcing us to wear a mask as a “civil right.”

“We’re going to be — I think most of you know, you know, we were the first state in the country to ban Covid vaccine passports in the spring of 2021, almost two years ago. You know, we banned, we protected employees from being fired from their job. We did a special session in 2021 over the shots. Banned schools from requiring Covid shots for students, including universities,” he said.

“And you have universities around the country, they’re forcing these 18, 19-year kids to get these booster shots. When you had research and Joe is familiar, we had one of the researchers on a panel we did, where you have risk of myocarditis exceeds the risk of getting affected of Covid for these kids, and they’re still forcing that on them,” DeSantis added.

“And that’s just runaway ideology. And so we’re going to be doing that, but — so he did all that. A lot of those provisions, though, expire on July 1st. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to do a whole package. We’re going to make all this permanent, then we’re going to add some more protections for people. You should never be discriminated against based on your mRNA status at all in any way,” he continued.

“You shouldn’t be — it should not even be an issue. We’re gonna do a whole package. We’re gonna make all this permanent, then we’re gonna add some more protections for people,” DeSantis pledged at a news conference. “You should be able to live your life without a mask … I just think it’s a civil right to be able to breathe the fresh air and be able to live your life,” said the governor.

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