Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Students’ Black Lives Matter display stirs emotions
A student demonstration supporting racial equality is bringing an unwelcome national spotlight to the prestigious American Heritage school.
The school last week canceled a basketball game and tournament, drawing scrutiny from some of the school’s student-athletes. The school said it was canceling the games over COVID-19 concerns, but the students questioned whether the cancellations had anything to do with the “Black Lives Matter” shirts they had worn during a warm-up session. Such shirts run against the school’s uniform policy.
As soon as the students called attention to the matter, their story drew support amid a national discussion about violence toward Black Americans. Rapper Fat Joe shared the students’ story to his 3.9 million followers on Instagram, several WNBA stars extended their support and the news coverage got picked up by national outlets such as Yahoo! Sports, Deadspin and Complex magazine.
The issue of their
uniform-wearing spilled over into this week, with the student-athletes again wearing their Black Lives Matter shirts at their latest basketball game.
Khadee Hession, a student at the school’s Boca Raton-Delray Beach campus, said she and her schoolmate, Jordana Codio, decided to wear their Black Lives Matter shirts as a form of activism after a problem unfolded during one of the school’s online classes. Hession, who was in that virtual class, said some students had changed their display names and one person changed the display name to include a racial slur.
Hession said she and her father, who taught the class, notified the school’s administration, but said they felt the school hadn’t done enough in response.
The two students wore the shirts at their game Friday, Dec. 4. The following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they had practices and by Wednesday night, they were told they couldn’t wear the shirts, Hession said.
She said they made it clear that they were still going to wear them and then the following morning, the team received a text from their coach saying the games scheduled for Friday and Saturday were canceled. That left the students puzzled.
Codio said she just wants to express her opinion and promote Black Lives Matter during the 15-minute pregame warm-ups.
“Most of my teammates are very upset and disappointed,” she said. “I’ve also spoken to a couple of my friends on American Heritage Plantation [campus], who is our sister school, and they’re also very disappointed and upset.”
Eric Schwartzreich, an attorney for the school, said the school’s COVID-19 concerns led to the canceled games, and not because the students wore the Black Lives Matter shirts.
“The Delray girls’ basketball team was neither suspended nor punished, and the game was not canceled due to the fact that some of the players were wearing BLM shirts during warm up, but rather because of concerns about COVID19,” Schwartzreich said.
He added, “American Heritage has a zero tolerance policy for racism as well a zero tolerance policy for defamation.”
The school did take action when it learned about the use of the racial slur during a virtual class, Schwartzreich said. It turned out the student who caused the problem wasn’t even a student at American Heritage.
“This all started in our Palm Beach school because a student from a public school (not American Heritage School) infiltrated a virtual class and used a racial slur,” he said. “American Heritage Deans and our IT department investigated the incident. Action was taken. We promptly informed the principal of the public school whose student committed the act.”
The private school does have a uniform policy — a common practice across many schools, both private and public, Schwartzreich said.
“Courts have allowed content neutral dress codes even in public schools. By virtue of the fact that American Heritage is a private school they enjoy greater protection when it comes to regulation of student dress. Students at American Heritage all wear school uniforms. School uniforms minimize distractions and help maintain an orderly learning environment. Uniforms also help with school bullying and that it minimizes other students from picking on each other due to dress attire.”
If the school were to allow anyone to deviate from the dress code, it would open the floodgates on what can be worn at school, he said. “For example, students could interpret this that they would be allowed to wear a shirt with a corporate logo, or a shirt in support of a political candidate over another another political candidate, or a shirt that supports or opposes a political or social movement,” he said.
The team’s head coach, Brett Studley, couldn’t be reached for comment, but tweeted in support of his players Sunday, saying, “We ask them to shed blood, sweat and tears for us. The least we could do is have their backs.”
He went on to say, “Our program has not had any COVID cases this season.”
The number of COVID-19 cases at American Heritage wasn’t available Tuesday, although Schwartzreich said he would look into whether the private school would provide such information.
The team on Tuesday night played against Miami Country Day School, where Hession and Codio wore the T-shirts again. “It doesn’t really matter because we’re going to stand for what we believe in, no matter the consequences,” Hession said. “This is just more motivation to show people what we believe in.”