Two former California high school students who were expelled after being accused of wearing “blackface” seven years ago are walking away from a lengthy legal battle with plenty of cash to show for it.
The families of the two students sued their San Francisco-area Catholic high school, which expelled them without hearing their side of the story in 2020 when an image posted online showed them donning dark coloring on their faces.
The coloring ended up being a sediment mask for acne prevention and treatment, but that did not stop the teens from being hit with “blackface” allegations.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the offending image was taken in 2017 but circulated online in May 2020 during the country’s wave of racial unrest after George Floyd died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.
The former students, whose names were given as AH and HH in the lawsuit, were offered two options by St. Francis High School in Mountain View when the image sparked outrage on social media.
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The boys were told they could accept expulsion or they could voluntarily withdraw from the elite school. Both were ultimately kicked out of St. Francis.
Their parents later sued, asking a court to award them $20 million in damages.
Four years later, a Santa Clara County jury agreed Monday that the boys did not receive due process and ordered the school to pay up.
AH and HH will receive $500,000 apiece and will have a combined $70,000 in tuition refunded to them.
The supposed “blackface” they were wearing was a light green face mask that turned a darker shade of green once it dried.
Three teens were seen in one image that went viral and angered scores of people online.
Parents, students demand change at St. Francis High School after blackface Snapchat https://t.co/7T6Wdt8teg
— FOX40 News (@FOX40) February 25, 2021
Krista Baughman, an attorney for one of the former St. Francis High School students, celebrated the verdict in a comment to the Times.
“This case is significant not only for our clients but for its groundbreaking effect on all private high schools in California, which are now legally required to provide fair procedure to students before punishing or expelling them,” Baughman said.
“The jury rightly confirmed that Saint Francis High School’s procedures were unfair to our clients and that the school is not above the law,” she added.
The family of AH said in a statement, “We want to sincerely thank the jury and the court system for helping our boys and our families find justice, which now paves the way for their names to be cleared for things they never did.”
The families had asked for damages from alleged defamation, but the jury disagreed the school had damaged their reputations.
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A representative of St. Francis High School said administrators “respectfully disagree with the jury’s conclusion as to the lesser claim regarding the fairness of our disciplinary review process.”
The school also hinted at an appeal when it said it was “exploring legal options” following the jury’s verdict.
