Black Lives Matter Shirt Gets Fatimah Bouderdaben Sent Home From School

A “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt reportedly got one Houston-area student sent home from school.

Fatimah Bouderdaben claims that she was made to leave the Harmony School for Advancement last Friday after refusing to take off her shirt for a #BlueHouston tribute in honor of deceased Houston officer Darren Goforth.

Goforth was shot multiple times in the back by a man who some have tried to link to the “Black Lives Matter” movement. However, there is no evidence at this time of a direct connection.

Bouderdaben made a shirt that said “Black Lives Matter” with the names of 26 victims of police brutality on the back.

The 17-year-old claimed many of her friends “were upset” about the idea of wearing blue, so her shirt was a response to that. She refused to change “because I was not breaking dress code.”

Meredith Millspaugh, the Dean of Students, was accused by Bouderdaben of calling the shirts “disruptive,” adding that “all lives matter.”

“She was blaming me for pretty much everything going on in the school,” Bouderdaben told the Houston Press. “She told me that she heard some kids were calling her a racist and that had never happened before I put on the shirt so it was my fault people were calling her that. I don’t think it was very professional of her to yell at me because of my beliefs.”

A PR firm representing the school, Opposing Views reports, claimed that it was the names of the 26 African-American victims that the school found in bad taste rather than the “Black Lives Matter” note.

“We had complaints from students that are sons and daughters of law enforcement that came to the administration and they were quite upset by it,” said Mustafa Tameez of Outreach Strategists. “They had names of African Americans that, according to them, were killed by white officers.”

Some online heralded Bouderdaben for her courage, pointing out that if logos were a problem, then “All Lives Matter” should not have been allowed or uttered at the event either.

According to the Guardian, African Americans make up 13 percent of the population yet comprise 29 percent of those killed by U.S. police.

Sixty-eight percent of those killed by police were armed, while 32 percent were not.

What do you think about this school’s decision to tell Bouderdaben to remove her “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt? Did it go too far, or was it the right thing to do in respect for the murdered police officer? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Fatimah Bouderdaben c/o Houston Press, linked above]