A First-Grader Was Punished for Making a ‘Racist’ Drawing. Her Mom Is Fighting Back

Chelsea Boyle first learned of her daughter’s punishment at school from another mom.

Until then, she was unaware that her daughter was learning about the Black Lives Matter movement in first grade at Viejo Elementary School in Southern California. She was unaware of the drawing her daughter had made for a black friend about a year earlier, in March 2021, as a gesture to ensure her friend felt included at school.

And she was unaware that her daughter had been punished for the drawing because, in addition to writing that “Black Lives Mater,” she had also written “any life.”

Because the suggestion that “any life” mattered was inconsistent with the school’s values in 2021, during what was essentially the peak of the post–George Floyd racial-justice movement, Boyle’s daughter was kicked out of recess for two weeks, barred from drawing any more pictures for her friends, and forced to apologize to her friend, though neither child understood why, according to court documents.

“Another mother had mentioned it to me, and I was like, ‘Wait, what? I’m sorry, what are you talking about? Are you talking about my daughter?’” Boyle told National Review, recalling that encounter in March 2022. “I was irate. I burst into tears.”

Boyle said she initially sought an apology from Viejo Elementary principal Jesus Becerra and the Capistrano Unified School District, but when it never came, she took legal action. In February, a district-court judge ruled in favor of the school officials, finding that Boyle’s daughter’s expression wasn’t protected by the First Amendment because of her young age.

Now, with the help of lawyers from the Pacific Legal Foundation, Boyle is taking her case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Pacific Legal lawyers argue that the district court’s ruling runs against decades of legal precedent that protects the speech of students, even young students, when it is not disruptive. They filed their opening brief on July 15.

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According to the Pacific Legal brief, Boyle’s daughter had been exposed to Black Lives Matter content during a classroom reading about Martin Luther King Jr. The majority-minority school also had a Black Lives Matter picture with a clenched fist that Boyle’s daughter saw daily.

In an effort to make her black friend feel included, Boyle’s daughter drew a picture that said “Black Lives Mater,” but she also included the words “any life.” There are also four ovals of different shades at the bottom representing Boyle’s daughter and her friends.

Boyle’s daughter’s friend put the picture in her backpack and took it home. When her mother discovered it, she reached out to Becerra to make sure that her daughter wasn’t being singled out in class because of her race. She didn’t want Boyle’s daughter punished.

But Becerra deemed the drawing “racist” and “inappropriate,” the Pacific Legal brief says.

According to the brief, he instructed Boyle’s daughter to apologize to her friend over the drawing. Both girls “expressed confusion” over the forced apology, the brief says. Boyle’s daughter was also barred “from drawing and giving pictures to classmates while at school,” the brief says, and she was held out of recess for two weeks and “forced to sit on a bench and watch her classmates play without her.”

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Boyle said that, at the outset, all she was looking for from school leaders was an apology. Now, with her legal fight, she feels like she’s standing up for students across the country.

She said that in the wake of the racial-justice protests of 2020, she told school leaders and her children’s teachers that she didn’t want them included in Black Lives Matter instruction. She said she was told they weren’t teaching that. Now she feels misled.

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Boyle said that because of her dispute with school leaders and the district, her children were harassed and retaliated against. She and her family have since relocated to Florida. Boyle said her daughter is still healing from the trauma and struggles with trusting adults.

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