Mom Files Lawsuit After Teacher Tells Third Grader She Can’t Wear ‘Jesus Loves Me’ Mask

Mississippi mother Jennifer Booth was surprised when her 9-year-old daughter Lydia Booth came home from school and told her that she was not allowed to wear her “Jesus Loves Me” face mask anymore. 

Thinking her daughter’s teacher might simply have been having a bad day, Booth sent Lydia back to school with her mask. Again, the third grader was told she was not allowed to wear the mask at school. 

"The principal calls me and she's like, 'We're going to have to have Lydia swap her mask out,'" Booth recounts, adding that the principal said it was against school policy "to have religious symbols or gestures on her mask." But upon inspecting the school handbook with the principal, Booth says, the only policy the principal could point to referred to "drug culture, profanity, [and] obscenities."

Booth continued to contact leaders of the Simpson County School District asking for an explanation and was eventually sent the district’s COVID-19 policy. But after a little investigation, Booth discovered that the policy she received had been modified less than an hour before it was emailed to her to include language barring student’s from wearing masks expressing religious views. 

Booth has filed a lawsuit against the school district with Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization. 

The mom says she chose to take legal action to protect her "kids, my grandkids, and everybody else's kids, because this year is the mask, next year is the T-shirt, eventually you can't say Jesus's name in school."

Booth and Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Tyson Langhofer join "The Daily Signal Podcast" to tell this story and discuss why they are taking a stand for religious liberty in Mississippi. 

Also on today’s show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a father and son who used their knowledge of the sea to find and rescue a man overboard off the coast of North Carolina. 

Enjoy the show!

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