SW News: In the United States, a school district in Mississippi has given its consent to alter a policy that prevents political or religious speech which prohibited a Grade-III student from wearing a facemask with the slogan “Jesus Loves Me”.

The Simpson County School District prevented Lydia Booth from donning that face mask as it sported a Christian message. This took place during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which takes up religious freedom cases, represented Booth in court. It announced on Wednesday that the school district altered its decision and will now allow the student to don the facemask with the religious message. This came as part of a settlement that winds up the lawsuit.

According to the director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom Tyson Langhofer, “No student should be singled out for peacefully expressing her religious beliefs.” He added that today’s students are tomorrow’s legislators, judges, educators and voters. Therefore, it is important for schools to protect the First Amendment values.

ADF filed the lawsuit on behalf of Booth in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in November 2020. The previous month Booth was told by school authorities that she could not wear the face mask as rules prohibited masks sporting religious and political messages.

“Defendants allow students at SCS to wear masks and other clothing with a wide variety of expressive messages during school, including ‘Black Lives Matter’ and masks and shirts promoting many sports teams. Defendants’ Religious Speech Policy and practice are overbroad because they sweep within their ambit protected First Amendment expression,” said Langhofer.

After the incident took place, Simpson County Schools Superintendent Greg Paes said in a statement that “Masks cannot display political, religious, sexual or any inappropriate symbols, gestures or statements that may be offensive, disruptive or deemed distractive to the school environment.”