Sacramento students censored over artwork supporting Black Lives Matter, ACLU says

A San Juan Unified School District elementary school teacher is under fire for throwing away student artwork and making students redo their posters due to their political nature, according to civil rights and free speech advocates.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California sent a letter to the San Juan Unified School District saying four students and a parent were censored and retaliated against for expressing support for Black Lives Matter. The students were in their right to create artwork and that throwing the posters away violated their free speech, the ACLU said.

The incident took place Sept. 16, when a parent volunteer taught an art lesson at Del Paso Manor Elementary School through the district’s Art Docent Program. The program invites parent volunteers to deliver district developed artwork lessons to elementary classrooms and “conduct discussions that open the children’s eyes to the wonderful world of art,” according to the district.

A parent volunteer, Magali Kincaid, gave a lesson plan on how art can manifest into activism and into communities and schools. The topics she covered included immigration, housing rights, pay equity, animal rights and Black Lives Matter, the ACLU’s letter to the district said. Four students chose to create posters that showed support for Black Lives Matter. According to the ACLU, the posters upset sixth-grade teacher David Madden.

The district said the parent volunteer was allowed to provide her own lesson without any training, which should not have occurred.

“It is inconsistent with our values and never our intent or desire for any student to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome to discuss issues that are important to them,” read a statement from the school district. “We sincerely apologize if this experience made any student feel such discomfort. Censoring a student’s assigned work because of its content would not be acceptable. We are open and committed to continuing our work with students, staff, community partners and others to ensure that our school communities embrace a diversity of thoughts and experiences.”

When Kincaid – who was a San Juan Unified school board candidate in 2018 – asked Madden if she could do another lesson relevant to future classroom lessons on diversity, Madden replied her content may not fit since his lessons were about “a bunch of old white guys,” according to the ACLU letter.

Madden, according to the complaint, later told Kincaid that the Black Lives Matter posters were “inappropriate and political,” that students at the school were not being shot, and questioned why a presentation that included the organization was relevant at Del Paso Manor.

The district said some of the assertions made in the letter from the ACLU were new information and that the district is investigating further.

About 10 percent of the students at Del Paso Manor are black. Nearly 30 percent of the students are English Language Learners.

The students were asked to redo their posters during class time, in what the ACLU is calling disciplinary action and retaliation against the students.

In its statement, the district said, “The teacher’s understanding of the resulting assignment was for students to produce artwork related to a change they wanted to see within the school itself. Students whose artwork focused on large social issues, which varied in topic, and was not directly tied to the school, were asked by the teacher to complete another poster the next day.”

California Education Code states school districts cannot strip students of their free speech and expressions while they are in school. The ACLU states districts cannot claim the political artwork caused disruption in class and further points that artwork that is environmentally political in nature is displayed in the school.

The ACLU says because Madden used class time to force the students to recreate their posters, the school and district “created an informal punishment of publicly shaming” them.

The ACLU is asking San Juan Unified for:

• A public apology.
• To allow Kincaid to continue volunteering in the classroom.
• To hang any new Black Lives Matters posters in the school breezeway during the school’s Spring Art Night, where other student artwork is on display.
• Curriculum and events that include Black Lives Matter.
• Cultural and sensitivity training for staff.
• Parent engagement training.

Tanya Faison of Black Lives Matter Sacramento said it’s always disappointing to hear the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is considered political to begin with.

“It says that we matter,” Faison said. “Black skin is not politics. We have a right to be treated fairly and equally. The teacher’s decision to throw the artwork away and have students redo it was a political one in it of itself.”

Sonia Lewis of Sacramento for Black Lives says, as a former teacher, she is aware that several local school districts use Art Docent programs and allow volunteers to suggest activities.

“No teacher should limit art expression and no teacher should humiliate students,” Lewis said. “Sixth-graders know and understand the ramifications of this. If they are being told black lives don’t matter, then they need every adult on campus telling them they do matter.”