Two high school students in Vacaville, Calif., along with some help from the American Civil Liberties Union, won their fight to include a tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement in their school’s yearbook.
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Administrators at Buckingham Charter Magnet High School did not want to include the piece in the yearbook because they were worried about the way the topic divided the student body, but CBS San Francisco reports that the issue turned into a lesson on free speech for both students and administrators at the school.
Ariana Coleman, a senior, and Vanessa Mewborn, a junior, told CBS that they were surprised when the school originally asked them to put together the project for the yearbook, but they set about interviewing students and teachers at the school to find out how they feel about race.
The topic quickly became controversial, and after they were told that the project would not run after all because it was considered to be racist, they contacted the ACLU.
Abre’ Conner, a staff attorney with the ACLU, told CBS, “It was a clear violation of the First Amendment, state law and education code.”
The yearbooks came out on Thursday, and included the piece in the center of it.
Coleman told CBS, “I hope everyone understands that black lives matter, all lives matter and my voice matters.”
According to CBS, the school released a statement saying that it supports students’ right to free speech, and it hopes that shedding light on different perspectives will help students better understand one another.
Read more at CBS San Francisco.
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