From: everythinglubbock.com
This week Lubbock-Cooper ISD made a statement concerning graffiti that was painted over a Trump 2020 parking spot at Lubbock-Cooper High School.
Seniors are allowed to decorate parking spots with restrictions for profanity, illegal behavior or vulgarity.
After news broke that the pro-Trump parking spots were vandalized, some people took to social media to say Lubbock-Cooper did not provide the same protection for students who wanted to display BLM or #blacklivesmatter parking spots. Lubbock-Cooper ISD on Wednesday issued a statement saying such claims are false.
The following is a statement from Lubbock-Cooper:
Regarding students that said they had to paint over their Black Lives Matter parking space:
Lubbock-Cooper ISD has been made aware of a rumor circulating social media that a Lubbock-Cooper High School student was instructed to “paint over” or repaint a parking space because the parking space featured a statement related to the BLM movement. This is false. At no time has any Lubbock-Cooper ISD administrator or employee advised or instructed a student to remove a BLM statement from their parking space, nor are statements related to the BLM movement prohibited by the district.
The only material prohibited from being included in parking space artwork is profanity, vulgar images or statements, or references to illegal activity. These guidelines are based off of the Lubbock-Cooper ISD student dress code (which can be found in the LCISD Student Handbook).
It is possible that this inaccuracy stems from a single incident in which a student’s parking space included a BLM statement in addition to unrelated profanity. The student was instructed to remove the profanity only; and was explicitly told that the only section of the parking space which had to be removed or painted over was the profanity (which, again, was unrelated to the BLM statement). When given the opportunity to paint over the profanity, the student opted to repaint the entire parking space. Contrary to rumor, this decision was not under the direction or influence of a Lubbock-Cooper ISD administrator, but was solely at the discretion of the student and/or the student’s family.
There have been no other incidents related to parking space artwork featuring BLM statements. As previously released in a statement by the district earlier this week, we respect the rights of our students to have their own belief systems, and students are permitted to express their beliefs on their parking lot spaces.
Dr. Keith Bryant
LCISD Superintendent