School District Tries To Get Away with Silencing Pro-Trump Student, Federal Judge Steps In

We’ve reached a point in American society where expressing support for the sitting president of our country is considered “too political” for some people.

That’s the excuse a school district gave for painting over a portrait of President Donald Trump painted on a student’s parking spot. Thankfully, a federal judge stepped in to uphold the student’s right to free speech.

As part of what sounds like a very cool tradition, seniors at a Louisiana high school in Washington Parish can pay $25 to paint their assigned parking spaces. The students must get approval for their paintings, but the school’s policy appears to ban only lewd images and language and using other students’ names, as reported by The New Orleans Advocate.

This year, however, Washington schools Superintendent Frances Varnado also tried to exclude a painting of President Trump.

Ned Thomas, a senior at Pine Junior-Senior High School, commissioned for his parking spot a portrait of President Trump wearing a stars-and-stripes bandana and sunglasses.

I wonder if the school board would have considered a portrait of Obama “too political” during his presidency.

Varnado claimed she was trying to avoid controversy, but her actions had the opposite effect. In addition to angry emails, Thomas’ parents filed a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction.

U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon — who happened to be appointed by President Bill Clinton — ruled in favor of Thomas and free speech.

“The painting of President Trump cannot reasonably be described as obscene or plainly offensive on its face, nor can it be construed as school-sponsored speech,” Fallon wrote.

The painting, he continued, “depicts the sitting President of the United States. This is not a case involving a symbol such as a Confederate flag, which has an established meaning as a ‘symbol of racism and intolerance, regardless of whatever other meanings may be associated with it.”