The Hill: How a first-grader taught her school district and a federal judge about free speech

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 09:01
VIEWED: 183
PAGE 1 of 1

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 9:01 AM

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5783916-california-principal-thr
eat-black-lives/

Quote:

---

In March 2021, California principal Jesus Becerra was confronted by a clear and present threat to his school.

Standing before him was the culprit — a student apparently so dangerous that Becerra had to act without delay to protect the entire Viejo Elementary School in the Capistrano Unified School District.

The little girl is known only as B.B. in federal filings, but her actions were so heinous that a parent alerted Becerra to take all necessary action.

Beccera showed B.B. the incriminating evidence: a picture of children holding hands with the words “any life” written under “Black Lives Matter.”

Confronting the little girl, Becerra allegedly called the paper “racist.” He told her told that she would need to apologize for the outrageous statement. (Becerra denies using the word “racist.”). Her family alleges that she was also suspended for two weeks from recess, apparently to consider her failures as a human being.

That single piece of paper has since prompted years of litigation, in which California educators fought for the right to punish this child for this picture given to a friend. And if that seems outrageous, you do not even know the worst of it.

B.B. had just sat through a book reading about Martin Luther King. It ended with “Black Lives Matter,” an expression that she had never previously heard. She felt bad that black people in the book were shown as being treated differently and unfairly. She decided to draw a picture of her friends holding hands under those words with the addition of “any life.” She gave the picture to one of those friends, a girl known in the litigation as M.C.

Throughout history, friends have given each other such notes and pictures without incident. But in these times, an array of adults felt the need to intervene, to make sure the girls understood that this innocent act was actually a despicable act of latent racism.

When M.C. brought the picture home, her mother was upset. M.C. is the only black student in the class and B.B. is white. She wrote to Becerra to object that “while we can appreciate the sentiment of Black Lives Matter, my husband and I do not trust the place ‘any life’ is coming from.” She did not want this to become a “larger issue” but asked Becerra to take the “actions that need to be taken to address the issue.”

And so Becerra allegedly demanded that she apologize and then suspended her from recess. B.B. did not tell her mother, Chelsea Boyle, about the incident or the alleged punishment for eleven months. But then the family moved to address the matter. They faced an array of administrators and lawyers who fought them at every stage. The school denied the punishment even happened, asserting that “the weight of evidence” did not support the claim that the little girl had been punished in any way.

Ultimately, the case made its way before federal District Court Judge David Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee. The school demanded summary judgment. Even though a court at that stage must assume all disputed facts in the most favorable way for the nonmoving party (B.B. in this case), Carter held that she could indeed be punished for writing those two words, “any life.”

Judge Carter declared that B.B.’s drawing was “not protected under the First Amendment” and that teachers like Becerra “are far better equipped than federal courts at identifying when speech crosses the line from harmless banter to impermissible harassment.” Besides, Carter added, “the downsides of regulating speech there is not as significant as it is in high schools, where students are approaching voting age and controversial speech could spark conducive conversation.”

In Judge Carter’s world, there is little danger that elementary students are likely to develop a taste for free speech, let alone contemplate its use. (Judge Carter had shown equally dismissive views of free speech in a controversial ruling related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.)

And so B.B. apparently got wh

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME