Two Black students were removed from their classroom at a school in Oklahoma, Friday, for wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts.
Eight-year-old Ben Stapleton and his five-year-old brother were held in the principal’s office and missed recess, lunch, and weekly tutoring for sporting the BLM shirts. Stapleton was called out by his P.E. teacher during gym class for the outfit.
“They pulled me out of P.E. and told me to put my shirt inside out and then I started playing,” Ben told Fox’s local affiliate.
Their mother, Jordan Herbert, lambasted the school district for the action.
“Y’all know he knows nothing about politics or his rights, so y’all make him turn it inside out because you don’t like it,” Herbert said.
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Superintendent Kim Holland defended the school’s decision saying that school is not the place for politics.
“I understand what she is saying, but school is not the place to have all that, y’know political back and forth and upheaval,” Holland said. “We’re trying to be more neutral in the school and be advocates for all of our children in what they need.”
“Allow my kid to express how his life matters, that’s it, that’s all,” Herbert stated.
[Via]