A California middle-schooler was suspended for allegedly wearing “blackface” to a local football game — but a national civil rights group claims the boy was just wearing eye paint.
The eighth-grader, only identified as J.A. for privacy reasons, was photographed attending a high school football game between La Jolla High School and Morse High School with dark face paint covering his cheeks and chin on Oct. 13, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
“We had a fun, great night without any trouble,” the boy’s father told Cal Coast News, claiming that a black security guard even encouraged his son to put on more face paint.
But one week after the game, the principal at Muirland Middle School called the boy and his parents to a meeting to inform them that the student would face a two-day suspension and be barred from attending any future athletic events.