A federal judge has ruled in favor of a high school senior at Pine High School in Washington Parish after the school board decided to paint over his painting of President Donald Trump at his assigned parking spot. Attorney Yigal Bander represents Ned Thomas and says he’s not surprised by the ruling.
“The superintendent tried to say this had all kinds of other overtones or undertones or meanings and was offensive, but as the judge said it’s a picture of the President of the United States,” said Bander.
The painting is part of the school system’s “Senior Paint Your Space” program and it received initial approval from the principal at Pine High School. Bander says the superintendent was concerned the painting would create controversy, but he says the real controversy came when the picture was painted over with grey paint.
“That didn’t really tend to show that the painting itself was a problem that if anything the school’s action was a problem,” said Bander.
The painting of President Donald Trump had him wearing a stars and stripes bandana and sunglasses. Bander believes the school system got some bad advice on how to handle this.
“The law was actually pretty straight forward and it’s shocking the school board didn’t understand the law was pretty straight forward,” said Bander.
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