A public school in Mississippi forbid a third grader from wearing a mask that has the words "Jesus Loves Me" written on it.
According to a report from a Thursday Todd Starnes' interview with Alliance Defending Freedom's legal counsel Tyson Langhofer, the principal of Simpson Central School pulled aside Lydia Booth on October 13 and told her that she could no longer wear her "Jesus Loves Me" facemask. The mask was reportedly worn by Lydia several times in school. Disheartened, the young girl could only tell her parents about the incident.
Jennifer Booth, the mother, said that the school responded that the wordings on her daughter's mask was a violation of the school's policy, but Booth said that it was not in the list of policies. The school's superintendent then told her that the mask is a violation to their policy banning masks with "political, religious, or inappropriate symbols."
The report added that the school had just ostensibly used the policy change as excuse to justify the ban and to not accommodate Lydia's concern.
Pro- religious freedom Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) took the case and is currently fighting for the young girl's right to wear her "Jesus Loves Me" mask at her school. They filed a federal lawsuit against the Simpson County School District.
"We were forced to file a lawsuit in order to just allow this third-grader to just express this positive message to the students around her that Jesus loves me," said Langhofer, ADF senior counsel.
Langhofer told Starnes that the act of banning a girl's mask with a printed Christian message while allowing other students to wear masks with BLM prints is a "viewpoint discrimination."
"Apparently they believe religious messages in class or in schools are inappropriate, but they allowed other masks with all kinds of other messages on it," the ADF lawyer continued. "If you allow others to express messages on their masks, you have to allow people to express religious messages."
Langhofer also noted that they have seen an increase in cases like Lydia's where officials used COVID-19 orders to "disproportionately" attack religious people's freedom of expression. He added that these attacks had been happening throughout the country and that the First Amendment protects everyone's freedom.
On Lydia's parents, Langhofer comments that their determination to proceed with the suit is a fight not just for their daughter but for the future generation of young believers.
"They're doing this for their daughter and for the future generations, because they don't want their future generations to lose the freedom that we currently have," he said.
As for Mr. and Mrs. Booth, they said that they are proud of their daughter.
"She wanted to express her faith. We felt like we had to stand up for her when she was told she couldn't express her faith like she was somehow a second-class citizen simply because she wanted to express a religious message and others a secular message," they said through ADF.
Starnes had also asked his supporters to support ADF in representing Lydia Booth's case.
"All she wants to do is wear a facemask that says 'Jesus loves me.' What's wrong with that?" he said. "But she's having to sue to engage in her constitutional rights, and we're going to help this family out!"
Those who want to help Lydia Booth and the ADF fight for religious freedom in schools are urged to pray for them to win the case, send a message of support to the third-grader, and/or donate to the cause.
Watch ADF's video below for a quick explainer on the kind of discrimination Christians, in school or not, are facing:
