Figure 1.--Children are usually the passive population impacted by history, but not always. Boys were commonly involved in wars. The Civil War is commonycalled the Boys War. But law in the West can involve children. One brace little Mississippi third grader, Lydia Booth, took her school to task over free speech--the cornerstone of Western Civilzation. What a scandal that a brave little Third Grader has to teach an American school district and hert teachers about free speech.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, teachers admonished this 9-year-old third grader about her 'Jesus Loves Me' face mask. Then ordered her to take it off before other students saw it. A confused Lydia growing up thinking that teachers were always right, informed her mother about this when she climbed into the backseat of the family car when her mother picking her up at school, thinking tha she had dome some thing wrong. "Mama, I’ve got bad news." Lydia told her mother that her computer lab teacher had warned her about wearing her favorite face mask to school. Lydia’s school in Simpson County, Mississippi, required the children to have facial covering. At first that was plain generic masks. The children soon began showing up at school with masks that expressed themselves. There were all kinds of masks such as the nearby Jackson State University logo, the New Orleans Saints logo, 'Black Lives Matter', and many more. Lydia's favorite mask was black with "Jesus Loves Me" in bright pink letters. So what did the teachers and school officials find offensive with Lydia's mask? Lydia's school dashed this bright little girl’s innocence when they forced her to remove her mask. Lydia tells us, "It made me sad, and a little confused. Sad, because I love the words on that mask. And confused because I didn’t know why it was happening." Her mother thought at first that it was a misunderstanding. She looked at the school handbook and saw no such prohibition. So she sent Lydia back to school with her favorite mask. Again the school forced Lydia to take off the mask. This time the principle called her mother. The principal told Lydia's mother that Lydia couldn’t wear her 'Jesus Loves Me' mask, saying that "... you can’t have religious or political things on masks at school." Only there There was no such statement in the school handbook. This time when she picked he her daughter, Lydia told her. “Mama,they made me change masks. And it is against the rules." Her mother told her, "It’s not. And Mama’s going to take care of it. You didn’t do anything wrong, OK?” An involved exchange with the principle and school District officials followed. And it was soon clear that there was no relevant prohibition in the school hand book or posted regulations on the District website.. At first there was nothing prohibiting Lydia's mask. And then doctored regulations suddenly appeared. Only the doctored regulations were clearly written by someone who had never read the Constitution. They were a flagrant violation of Constitutionally protected free speech. So Lydia and her mother became free speech warriors and took the school to court.

Created: 4:25 AM 10/5/2025
Last updated: 4:25 AM 10/5/2025