On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton tweeted in support of 11-year-old Mariana Taylor after Taylor was reprimanded by her teacher for kneeling during the pledge of allegiance. In February, Taylor kneeled in class to protest American racism and sexism.
“It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work Mariana,” the tweet said.
It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work Mariana. https://t.co/vnGheuWyJ0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 15, 2018
Joanne Taylor, Mariana’s mother, told CBS Baltimore, “Mariana became upset right then and there. She was allowed to leave the classroom upset, the teacher did not suggest any kind of support that she go to the guidance counselor. It wasn’t until her second teacher could not calm her down that she was supportive of Mariana.”
Taylor’s teacher didn’t give her a detention, nor did the school suspend Taylor. However, Taylor’s teacher did forcefully tell Taylor the act of protest was disrespectful to our country and to her family serving overseas.
Mariana says she was inspired by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and cited the Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case, in which the Supreme Court determined high school students couldn’t be harshly reprimanded for protesting the Vietnam war and that “Students don’t shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates.”
Jay Jimenez, a legal associate for the ACLU of Maryland spoke up on behalf of Taylor. “The ACLU urges Baltimore County and all Maryland schools to review and update their policies to honor respectful student activism in the future, like silently ‘taking a knee’ during the Pledge of Allegiance,” Jimenez said.
Taylor’s act of protest raises some important, but difficult, legal questions.
Because Taylor is just 11, does she have the mens rea to open her up to harsh disciplinary action, and should schools handle disciplinary actions for students with different stages of psychosocial development differently? Absolutely. Does she fully understand what she’s specifically protesting when she defines it in the sweeping terms of racism and sexism, much less the gravity of the blood shed by American men and women in places like the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, the steamy jungles of Saigon, and the blood-stained beaches of Normandy?
Probably not because Taylor admits she was emulating Colin Kaepernick, a figure the media has pedestalled as a champion of the Left.
Of course students should retain their right to free speech, assembly, and expression on campus, but does that mean they are also free of the consequences of speech? For example, both protesting the pledge and cursing can be offensive, and I would be hard pressed to find someone arguing an 11-year-old shouldn’t be reprimanded for cursing out a teacher or another student, even if it doesn’t disrupt the class. Is it the state’s job to draw those lines? Or should teachers be given the agency to determine appropriate classroom conduct in the attempt to make their students better citizens?
These are all questions the Baltimore Public School District is toiling with as the new school year starts up.