All posts tagged: Jesus loves me facemask

Third-grader wins battle with her school over ‘Jesus Loves Me’ facemask

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In 2020, third-grader Lydia Booth was forced to wear a facemask at school because of Covid, but got into a heap of trouble with her Simpson County School District in Mississippi when she wore a facemask that said: “Jesus love me,” Fox News reports. Kids throughout the school were wearing facemasks with words on them and Lydia had worn the mask several times, with no complaints. Note, the facemask didn’t say “Jesus loves you” it was an expression of her personal faith of God’s love for her. Lydia said that in the midst of the pandemic, the facemask helped her feel safe. But that changed when the school district decided to change its policy in the middle of its school year and disallow masks with political and religious messages on them. As soon as the edict was passed, Lydia was told she could no longer wear the mask. It was noted that, Lydia’s facemask did not cause disruption in the school and none of the students had complained about it. But obviously, someone didn’t like …

Mississippi School bans ‘Jesus Loves Me’ facemask

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Matthew and Jennifer Booth, the parents of Lydia, a nine-year-old girl in grade three, have filed a lawsuit against a Mississippi school district alleging that Simpson Central School would not allow their daughter to wear her “Jesus Loves Me” facemask. Though she had been wearing it several days without incident, on Oct. 13, 2020, the suit alleges Lydia was told to take off her mask because it violated a school regulation preventing political and religious messages on face masks. The family is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom that argues the school’s regulation is not only unconstitutional, but it is not being equally applied to the other students. In its news release, ADF states: Public schools have a duty to respect the free expression of students that the First Amendment guarantees to them. While school administrators face challenges in helping students navigate school life during a pandemic, those officials simply can’t suspend the First Amendment or arbitrarily pick and choose the messages that students can or can’t express. Other students within the school district …