Maryland School Suspends Teen for Wearing Blackface; Her Parents Sue for $4 Million

Maryland school Maryland school suspends teen wearing blackface blackface First Amendment rights $4-million lawsuit Severna Park High School baltimore Baltimore's U.S. District Court gold face paint Cole Sullivan student suspension

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Apr 06, 05:40 am

Photo: (Photo : Tomas Cuesta/Getty Images)

After a Maryland school suspended a teen for allegedly wearing blackface, her parents launched a $4-million lawsuit and claimed that their daughter's First Amendment rights were violated.

The teenager, identified only as freshman student "K.H." in the court documents, was sanctioned after sending a photo of herself with the face paint to her friends. A few days later, K.H. was asked to leave her class at the Severna Park High School and was informed by school officials about her suspension.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the parents filed the lawsuit with Baltimore's U.S. District Court and claimed their daughter was unfairly suspended for something she did outside of school. The parents also insisted that K.H. was not wearing blackface but gold face paint.

However, since the school upheld the suspension, the parents said their daughter's reputation became tainted. K.H. was bullied and excluded from the social circles in school.

Teen Messing Around with Gold Makeup

On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, K.H. was at her house when she took a photo of herself with her face covered in gold paint. She sent this photo to a group of friends on Snapchat. When she came to school that Monday, K.H. realized that someone had circulated her image; thus, she was asked to report to the school administrators.

The teenager was questioned about the photo, but she told the school authorities she meant no racial bias since she was wearing gold paint. It was the same paint she used for the school pep rallies the previous days since blue and gold were the school colors. The lawsuit noted that the school did not have issues with K.H. wearing the same face paint at the rally.

K.H. also said that she was on FaceTime with her friends while applying the gold face paint. They were simply "messing around" with the makeup.

However, according to WTOP, K.H. was told her photo violated the rules in the student handbook about intentional bias. Following her suspension, the teenager was also required to join the school's Bias Behavior Program. Soon after, K.H. was tagged as a racist by some schoolmates.

Her father appealed to the school repeatedly to rescind the suspension. However, the Maryland school was firm on its suspension, which will mark the student's permanent file.

Teen Was Not in School

Cole Sullivan, the lawyer for the family, said that the photo K.H. uploaded to her friends was taken at her home, outside of school hours, and did not target anyone. It also did not mention or indicate anything about Severna Park High, according to Revolt TV. Thus, the Maryland school's decision to suspend the teen may violate her freedom of speech.

The lawyer did not include the controversial photo in the court documents but attached a photo of the face paint's packaging, labeled as "gold."

Sullivan also said there is a precedent to their case as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2021 that a Pennsylvania student was unjustly suspended from her sports team after expressing her disappointment for not making the varsity squad. The court ruled that the Pennsylvania student's rant was off-campus and did not disrupt the school. The court said that the school did not have the authority to discipline the student in the case as it was her parents' responsibility to control her rants outside of the school setting.