Federal judge rules Louisiana teen can keep Trump painting in school parking space

FRANKLINTON, La. — A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Louisiana high school senior can have a painting of President Donald Trump grace his parking space at the school.

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U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, ruled that Ned Thomas, a senior at Pine Junior-Senior High School in Franklinton, had his First Amendment rights violated when Washington schools Superintendent Frances Varnado, with the school board’s approval, coated Trump’s image in a blot of gray paint, NOLA.com reported.

Thomas was taking advantage of the school system’s “Senior Paint Your Parking Space” policy, where high school seniors pay a $25 fee and decorate their parking space, the website reported. All images had to be approved, and the promotion barred foul languages or images or the use of another student’s name.

Thomas commissioned a painting of Trump wearing a stars-and-stripes bandana and aviator sunglasses, NOLA.com reported.

The paint job cost Thomas $200, and it was approved by the school’s principal, WWL Radio reported.

The painting was ready for public viewing on Aug. 6. Eight days later, the principal told him the school board had ordered it painted over.

Varnado and the school board might have trumped the principal’s approval and painted over the spot, but Thomas took the school district to court. Fallon agreed with the student.

“The painting of President Trump cannot reasonably be described as obscene or plainly offensive on its face, nor can it be construed as school-sponsored speech,” Fallon wrote in his decision.

Fallon wrote that to remove the image, the school district would have to show that the painting was “materially disruptive” or hampered school activities, NOLA.com reported.

"While (the painting) is certainly a stylized and colorful image, (it) depicts the sitting President of the United States,” Fallon wrote. “This is not a case involving a symbol such as a Confederate flag, which has an established meaning as a ‘symbol of racism and intolerance, regardless of whatever other meanings may be associated with it.’”

Fallon based his decision on a 1969 Supreme Court decision that said public school students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, a Des Moines, Iowa, school system punished students who defied a policy against them wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, NOLA.com reported.

Fallon ruled that, “Ultimately, it is clear that school officials in this case acted based upon ‘an urgent wish to avoid controversy which might result from the expression.’”

The school board is unlikely to appeal Fallon’s decision.

Thomas said he meant the painting as a symbol of admiration. “There was nothing negative towards the president,” he told NOLA.com, adding that his principal “fought for me like a dog” against the board decision.

“I’ve seen nothing but support from the community and all around,” Thomas told the website. “I didn’t think there would be any conflict, but the School Board thought otherwise.”

Cox Media Group