Cali teen suspended following 'blackface' allegation at football game

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A Grade 8 student in La Jolla, Calif., has reportedly been suspended for allegedly wearing “blackface” to a local football game.

However, a national civil rights group called the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) claims the boy — identified only as J.A. for privacy reasons — was wearing black eye paint to reflect any glare as many football players do.

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According to the New York Post, the student was photographed on Oct. 13 attending a high school football game between La Jolla High School and Morse High School with dark face paint covering his cheeks and chin.

“We had a fun, great night without any trouble,” the boy’s father told Cal Coast News.

That is, until, a week after the game, the Muirland Middle School principal called the boy’s family to say he’d face a two-day suspension and was banned from attending any future sports events.

Cal Coast News reported that a disciplinary notice said J.A. “painted his face black at a football game” and characterized it as an “offensive comment, intent to harm.”

The principal also reportedly said the face paint was offensive because Morse High School is “largely black,” according to the publication.

However, FIRE sent a Nov. 8 letter to the principal, claiming he violated the boy’s First Amendment right, and called for the decision to be reversed.

“As the First Amendment protects J.A.’s non-disruptive expression of team spirit via a style commonly used by athletes and fans — notwithstanding your inaccurate description of it as ‘blackface’ — FIRE calls on the school to remove the infraction from J.A.’s disciplinary record and lift the ban on his attendance at future athletic events,” wrote Aaron Terr, FIRE’S director of public advocacy.

Terr said J.A’s “appearance emulated the style of eye black worn by many athletes,” noting that “such use of eye black began as a way to reduce glare during games,” which is different from blackface as in “‘dark makeup worn to mimic the appearance of a Black person and especially to mock or ridicule Black people.’