Two former California high school students received $1 million and tuition reimbursement after they say they were forced to withdraw from school in 2020 for wearing acne masks, which officials have interpreted and community members as “blackface.”
The two former Saint Francis High School (SFHS) students, now 21, became the “poster children of racism” when a 2017 photo of them wearing anti-acne masks circulated in June 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the suit. .
“This case is important not only because of its groundbreaking effect on all private high schools in California, which are now legally required to provide due process to students before punishing or expelling them,” said Krista Lee Baughman , the former student’s lawyer, in a press release. emailed to USA TODAY. “The jury rightly confirmed that St. Francis High School’s procedures were unfair to our clients and that the school is not above the law.”
The boys sued SFHS, the president of SFHS and a parent of one of the SFHS students for breach of contract, defamation and violation of two other legal rights. On May 6, a jury awarded each former student $500,000 and tuition reimbursement, which totaled about $70,000, on Los Angeles Times reported.
Why have people interpreted acne masks as blackface?
The background of the photo is from when one of the men, then 14, suffered from “teenage acne,” according to the complaint. Under his mother’s advice, in August 2017, he and an unnamed friend in the suit “applied white-colored acne masks to their faces.”
Because both boys thought they looked “stupid,” they “took a time-stamped photo of themselves with the masks,” the suit states. The next day, the boys asked a 14-year-old friend, Holden Hughes, to put on masks with them, but this time they were “light green in color,” according to the complaint.
Hughes approved having his name made public, but the other boy referred to in the suit as “AH” preferred to remain anonymous, according to Baughman.
After Hughes, AH and the other juvenile applied the green masks, they again took “silly photos,” the complaint states. The misconception that the boys wore blackface was because the acne masks turned “dark green as they dried on their faces,” according to the complaint.
Boys were ‘scapegoats,’ complaint says
Accusations against the boys emerged in 2020 amid a “series of racially motivated scandals perpetrated by a few SFHS students and/or recent alumni” that were “tormenting the SFHS community,” the suit states.
“(Hughes and AH) had absolutely nothing to do with these horrific acts of racism. And yet, (SFHS and other defendants named in the lawsuit) took it upon themselves to use the innocent and unrelated photo of the boys to send the malicious message and a completely false accusation that the boys had engaged in “blackface,” and to recklessly assert that the photograph was “another example” of racism at SFHS,” according to the statement. the complaint.
Due to the negative reactions caused by the images, SFHS “forced AH and (Hughes) to voluntarily withdraw or face immediate expulsion” ahead of what would have been the teens’ final years at the school, according to the complaint. The complaint called the boys a “scapegoat” and referenced a meeting their parents had with the principal of SHFS, during which she verbally admitted that the school’s decision to “de facto expel AH and (Hughes)” was not a question of intention, but rather of optics.
“SFHS openly admits that while it does not believe the boys acted in a racist or discriminatory manner, the school’s priority is to pay lip service to how SFHS is perceived, even at the expense of its own students” , according to the complaint.
“The sacrifice is worth it to clear the boys’ names”
The complaint says the accusation “upended” the lives of the boys and their families.
“We want to sincerely thank the jury and the justice system for helping our boys and our families get justice, which now opens the way to clearing their names for things they never did,” he said. the Hughes family said in a statement to USA TODAY. after the verdict. “…Twenty percent of our boys’ lives have been dedicated to seeing this process come to fruition. But the sacrifice is worth it to clear our boys’ names and to try to ensure that St. Francis can no longer never assume a child is guilty without giving a child the opportunity to show their innocence.
After the photos went viral, the boys were “forced to leave town for the foreseeable future,” according to the complaint. The situation also affected their ability to complete high school, participate in sports and gain admission to colleges, according to the complaint.
“We hope this will lead the Board of Trustees to pursue those responsible for these actions and make the necessary changes to protect students in the future,” according to the Hughes family statement. “And restore the sanctity of St. Francis as Holy Cross High School.”
SFHS ‘exploring legal options, including appeal’
SFHS emailed a statement to USA TODAY on Monday regarding the jury’s verdict.
“We appreciate the jury’s verdict rejecting plaintiffs’ two primary allegations of defamation and breach of contract, and thank them for their thoughtful analysis,” the statement said. “The jury correctly concluded that we did not violate our handbook, that we did not violate the students’ free speech rights, and that we did not defame the students.”
SFHS said it was “exploring legal options, including appeal,” as it “respectfully” disagreed “with the jury’s finding of any fairness claim” regarding this process. disciplinary examination.
“There is no legal precedent applying this assertion to a high school,” the SFHS statement said. “We are grateful for the strong support of our community throughout this matter. We look forward to putting this matter behind us so that we can once again focus solely on educating our vibrant student body and living the Catholic values of the Holy tradition -Crosses, which are rooted in hope, respect, integrity and family.
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Saint Francis High ‘blackface’ trial nets $1 million for former students
