Lindsey Wasson / REUTERS
Two high school students were expelled from their high school in California. A photo showed them with grimaces on their faces, which was deemed racist.
In 2017, AH, HH and a third unidentified 14-year-old took a photo of themselves with their faces covered in a dark green substance. The sleepover continues, then ends, and the photo, posted on social networks, is forgotten. It emerged in 2020, at the height of the riots Black Lives Matter , a movement born after the death of African-American George Floyd, and goes viral. The three boys are accused of blackface, a process aimed at mocking Africans by painting their faces black. Their high school, the prestigious Catholic establishment Saint François de Mountain View in California, gives them the choice: voluntary departure or exclusion, without any prior interview.
Superior Court of California
During these 2020 riots, accusations of racism could lead to conviction. However, the teenagers and their parents filed a complaint. The lawsuit reveals that the substance is… an acne mask, which turns from light green after application to dark green when dry. This treatment was purchased by the mother of one of the boys, and they took the photo in solidarity with one of their friends suffering from severe acne. A Santa Clara County jury affirmed Monday, reports the Los Angeles Times s, that the school violated an oral contract and had not respected the exclusion procedure, because the students had not been heard. AH and HH each received $500,000, and tuition fees will be reimbursed up to $70,000.
The jury did not accept the charges of defamation and violation of freedom of expression. “This case is important not only to our clients but also for its revolutionary effect on all private high schools in California, which are now legally required to provide due process to students before punishing or expelling them”reacted Krista Baughman, one of the students’ lawyers. “The jury rightly confirmed that Saint Francis High School’s procedures were unfair to our clients and that the school is not above the law”she added.
“We sincerely want to thank the jury and the justice system for helping our boys and our families get justice, which now opens the way for their names to be cleared for things they never did”, added the family of one of the teenagers in a press release. The Saint François school, for its part, claims to be “respectfully disagree” with the conclusion of the jury and “were studying legal options”like a call.
