The phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ can be problematic. But this first grader deserved a break.

In 2021, after being read a book about Martin Luther King Jr., a white first-grader in California gave her Black classmate a drawing that included the words “Black Lives Mater any life” (sic).  The apparently well-intentioned note led to a bizarre case that has not only prompted judges to wrestle with the First Amendment rights of first graders but also prompts the rest of us to ask how we arrived at this moment.

The circumstances that caused the Black parents to suspect ill intent and resulted in a court fight between the parents of the white student and the school district were born of current social tensions around race in society. But a generous reading of the white first grader’s drawing that she gave to her Black classmate, which was written over different colored ovals representing her friends holding hands, suggests she was trying to express empathy, not malice.

A generous reading of the white first grader’s drawing suggests she was trying to express empathy, not malice.

On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling which found that the white student’s drawing wasn’t protected speech. In overturning that ruling, the appeals court found that the white girl’s mother, who said her daughter was made to apologize to her Black classmate and miss recess for two weeks, had the right to sue the Capistrano Unified School District. The principal has denied that such a punishment happened. The 9^th Circuit cited Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District in finding for the mother.

Tinker is a straightforward ruling that says a school can regulate a student’s speech if it is found to “materially and substantially interfere” with the functions of the school. The court asserted that the lower court did not correctly apply the balancing standard required by Tinker for multiple reasons, including that the Black girl did not take offense to the picture and that the white girl who created the picture had no ill intent.

Yet this situation is more than a First Amendment case. According to the appeals court record: The white student felt bad when the book on King was read in class and she learned of the historical discrimination Black people had faced. The book reportedly included the words “Black lives matter” at the end, and the white student  added “any life” because “all lives matter.” Her mother argues that her child had no concept of “Black Lives Matter” as a phrase and only copied what she’d just seen in the book.

Her Black classmate took the picture home and asked her mother what it meant. Her mother later contacted the school to make sure their child was not being singled out for her race and later said, “While we can appreciate the sentiment of Black Lives Matter, my husband and I do not trust the place where the ‘any life’ is coming from.”

While we can appreciate the sentiment of Black Lives Matter, my husband and I do not trust the place where the ‘any life’ is coming from.

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Neither the reaction from the Black girl’s parents nor the reaction from the school happened in a vacuum. Their reaction was born from two hard truths. The first truth is that parents have every reason to try to protect their children from racism. Experiencing racism is an adverse childhood experience whose negative impacts linger long after any specific incident. Experiencing any form of bigotry is traumatic, especially for children. The second truth is that 2021 was not far removed from the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. It was during that time that we saw a semantic bleaching of the longtime social justice slogan “all lives matter” by the opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement who then turned “all lives matter” into a political and cultural vice signal against the broader notion of racial equality.

Against this backdrop, it is understandable that Black parents and the Capistrano Unified School District would be vigilant in trying to protect the mental and physical well-being of the children under their care. But even people who are justified in being vigilant can overreact and make mistakes.

This is one of those moments. If all the facts of the situation are accurate in the court’s opinion, this is a situation where vigilance perceived malice where none existed.

Within the context of learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., it is understandable why the white student might have chosen to express her feelings this way.

While it is understandable that adults might interpret “any life” as proximate to “all lives matter,” it is dubious to assume that a first grader has any understanding of the sociopolitical implications of “all lives matter” vice signaling conceptually. Second, within the context of learning about the life and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., it is understandable why the white student might have chosen to express her feelings this way. A book about Martin Luther King Jr. appropriate for first graders is likely to present King’s philosophy in a way that a first-grader might summarize as “Black lives matter any life.”

The sad irony here is that it appears the white student was showing what many in the racial justice movement have asked for: empathy and sympathy at the recognition of human suffering. If the goal of a lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and the civil rights revolution is to get students of all colors to have empathy for those who are subject to discrimination, then the picture in question can be seen as evidence that that day’s lesson succeeded.