Southern California school settles student's lawsuit over blackface at football game

(CN) — A Southern California middle school settled a First Amendment lawsuit by a student who was suspended for purportedly wearing blackface in support of a nearby high school’s football team.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Crawford on Monday approved the so-called minor’s compromise between Muirlands Middle School in La Jolla, California, and the student identified in court filings by his initials J.A., saying it was in the best interest of the student.

In exchange for dismissal of the lawsuit, the school will expunge the suspension from the student’s record.

“Plaintiff previously sought, and failed to obtain, an injunction from the court,” the judge said. “Thus, it appears plaintiff is (at least partly) getting through settlement what he could not obtain through litigation, which strikes the court as distinctly in plaintiff’s best interest.”

U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez last year found that the student had not made a plausible case that wearing eye black on his face was somehow constitutionally protected expressive conduct and rejected his claim that his constitutional rights had been violated.

J.A., at the time an eighth grade student, was suspended for two days in 2023 after he and some of his friends were seen wearing eye black, which athletes use to reduce sun glare, over much of their faces and purportedly uttering racial slurs in front of the fans of the opposing team at a La Jolla High School football game.

The student and his parents sued the school’s principal and the school district and sought a preliminary injunction to undo his punishment and expunge the incident from J.A.’s school records because, they argued, he only wore a common face paint design called Warrior eye black to express spirit and support at a high school football game.

They denied that he made any racial slurs at the game.

But the fact that J.A., who previously was disciplined for making racist comments to a Black classmate, had half his face painted black undermines his explanation, according to last year’s ruling.

“Internet searches reveal that there are photographs of fans wearing black paint on their faces in various designs during other LJHS football games, but nothing as pronounced as the black paint on plaintiff’s face during the game in question,” Lopez wrote in her Oct. 1 decision. “Regardless of just how common certain colors and designs of face paint are for fans to wear during LJHS football games, the focus remains on plaintiff’s conduct during this particular game and how that audience would have understood it.”

In this regard, the judge pointed to the school district’s findings that a cheer coach and students of the opposing team, Morse High School, saw and heard particularly young boys running around saying “n—a” this and “n—a” that on their side of the field and someone with a lot of eye black on his face yelling, “I can say it now.”

The surveillance video confirms that the place of this incident matches where J.A. and his friends were on Morse High School’s side of the field and that J.A. had eye black on about half of his face, according to Lopez.

In addition, the judge noted, J.A. only had eye black put on his face toward the end of the game when he and his friends were on the opposing team’s side of the field, and he didn’t appear to be watching the game.

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