A young girl who wanted to wear her faith on her mask never expected it to be a problem at school but that is what happened. Lydia Booth told the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) she simply liked wearing the mask to show her faith in Jesus. She also said, “It makes me feel like I’m protected by Jesus.”
She says she believed others would “think it’s a great mask, and that Jesus is a great God, and a great Savior.”
School officials told her she couldn’t wear it because of a policy not allowing masks with political or religious messages. However, Lydia’s mother, Jennifer, checked the handbook and dress code and didn’t find that restriction. She also discovered that masks with sports logos and other messages like “Black Lives Matter” were allowed.
The Booth family reached out to ADF for help and it filed a lawsuit against her school district. ADF reminded the school system that they “can’t pick and choose which messages students are allowed to express and which they aren’t. And they certainly can’t single out religious speech for worse treatment than other types of speech.”
Still, God is using Lydia’s struggle to touch the lives of other children, prompting reactions from her schoolmates. One of Lydia’s classmates saw her mask and wanted one just like it. Another friend’s older sister, after hearing about the case, decided to read the entire Bible.
“It’s powerful for my kids to see other kids being a witness for Christ and even living through some persecution for it,” wrote their mom.