Mom Says School Made Daughter Apologize For ‘Racist’ Drawing

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A mother says her 7-year-old daughter was disciplined, banned from the playground, and forced to apologize to her peers because of a “racist” drawing she made for her mixed-race friends.

Chelsea Boyle
Chelsea Boyle said her child was allegedly punished for a drawing. (Photo Credit: Provided)

Chelsea Boyle threatened to sue a California elementary school after her child was allegedly punished and publicly humiliated for a completely innocent act. Even more disturbing is that the mother didn’t even hear about the incident and subsequent disciplinary actions until another parent informed her a year later.

According to Red State, Boyle’s 7-year-old daughter, identified as “Jane,” faced discrimination after a teacher deemed her drawing racist. She says that Jane, who has ADHD, was merely expressing her love for her friends when she created an homage to them in class.

Chelsea Boyle
Chelsea Boyle says that her 7-year-old daughter was punished for drawing her friends of varying races along with the term “Black Lives Matter” and “any life.” (Photo Credit: Provided)

The child, who is white, drew a picture of her friends of different races and captioned the image “Black Lives Matter” followed by the words “any life.” Jane gave the picture to her friend, who took it home. However, the parents of the friend were offended by the drawing and called the school to complain.

Boyle alleges that Viejo Elementary School principal Jesus Becerra sought out Jane to interrogate her about the drawing. The child was then allegedly forced to apologize to her friend on the playground in front of other students and school staff members. Boyle says that Jane was then “benched,” which is a punishment involving the child sitting on a bench outside while her classmates play during recess.

Chelsea Boyle says her daughter was forced to publicly apologize. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)

According to Chelsea Boyle, she wasn’t notified about the incident by the school. In fact, she claims that she only heard about it from another parent nearly a year after her daughter was punished. Understandably, Boyle was outraged, especially considering that she volunteers hundreds of hours in the classroom and for school events.

“My immediate reaction is just…I feel like I got hit by a bus, but I didn’t understand it,” Chelsea Boyle explained. “And I thought, oh, you know, my daughter has just been discriminated against. And I didn’t even want to contact a lawyer, but I just didn’t know what had happened to us.”

Boyle questioned her daughter, who had no idea why she had been in trouble for the drawing. The child simply thought she was no longer allowed to draw and was forbidden from writing “those words.”

“I don’t teach [about] Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, [or] anything in my house because I think my children are too young [for politics],” Chelsea Boyle said. “My children see color as a color, as a description. I am trying to raise them the way the world should be, not the way it is. That’s how I’m trying to make my personal change. [H]er best friend is brown — not black, but brown — and she didn’t understand why she didn’t matter, why her friend didn’t matter. She has another friend that is Japanese; she doesn’t understand.”

Chelsea Boyle says her daughter drew the picture because she wants all of her friends to feel valued regardless of their color. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)

Boyle says she emailed Becerra and other district officials but was ignored, after which her lawyer, Alexander Haberbush, said that the next step was to file a lawsuit against the district. He explained that the case is one of “compelled speech,” which places the burden of proof on the school officials.

“It’s a compelled speech issue; obviously compelled speech is one of the toughest tests that they have to meet, if they want to say that this is valid, ‘we can do it,'” Haberbush said. “We believe that there is no way that they can meet that standard and we believe this is an egregious deprivation of her rights and that Chelsea should be vindicated.”

Boyle said that she didn’t want to remove her child from the school but admitted that she was at odds with sending her back. Although the incident happened a year ago, she said she was worried about a possible backlash as she pursued legal action.

Chelsea Boyle’s lawyer said the next step was to sue the school for “compelled speech.” (Photo Credit: CDC via Unsplash)

Chelsea Boyle and her lawyer said they are confident that they have a solid example of discrimination and compelled speech. Unfortunately, her daughter is still suffering long-term effects of the incident, including anxiety about drawing, which used to be her therapeutic outlet.

It’s disturbing that adults would accuse a 7-year-old child of racism over an innocent drawing. However, it’s even more infuriating that they would hide such disciplinary methods from the parents. Sadly, public schools have seemingly become indoctrination factories packed with political propaganda.