California High-School Students Awarded $1M In Lawsuit After Previously Being Expelled For Black Face Photos; Argued That They Were Using An Acne Face Mask!

Cousins! A California jury has sided with two former students who were previously expelled based on accusations of wearing Black face within a resurfaced photo online!

The two teens have received a major payday within their case against the Bay Area-located Catholic school, as they argued that the discovered photo wasn’t racially motivated but was instead the teens posing with face acne masks.

Fox News reports, that a Santa Clara County jury declared two out of the five claims issued within the lawsuit were accurate and in return awarded the teens $500,000 each along with an additional $70,000 for tuition reimbursements for the four years the boys missed from school.

Both teens were previously forced to withdraw from Saint Francis High School following the racial controversial incident.

“Our primary goal was to clear (our clients’) names,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Krista Baughman, to San Francisco Chronicle following the jury’s decision.

“It was quite clear the jury believed these were innocent face masks. They are young kids, their internet trail is going to haunt them for the next 60 years. Now they don’t have to worry about that.

The two teens alongside their families originally filed a 20 million dollar lawsuit against the Mountain View, California high-school after the 2017 dated photos went viral. Within the discovered photos are the two two boys who were fourteen years old at the time, posing in front of a mirror wearing green face masks.

Their issued lawsuit notes that the masks presented in the photos were acne medications.

Reports read that the photos resurfaced online in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. Other students of St Francis and their parents accused the boys of posing for Black face and demanded that the school take action.

The plaintiffs argued in court that the school failed to conduct a proper investigation and instead acted poorly by forcing the two teens to either withdraw or be expelled.

“Defendants took it upon themselves to use the innocent and wholly unrelated photograph of the boys to make the malicious and utterly false accusation that the boys had been engaging in ‘blackface,’ and to recklessly assert that the photograph was ‘another example’ of racism at SFHS,” the suit states.

“The boys did not use the face-masks or take the photograph with any ill-intent, bias or prejudice, let alone in connection with any racist sentiments or epithets,” the suit continues.

The California jury ruled that the school was guilty of two out of the five issued claims: failing to conduct a proper investigation and breach of an oral contract.

“We appreciate the jury’s verdict rejecting the plaintiffs’ two primary claims of defamation and breach of contract and thank them for their thoughtful analysis. The jury rightly found we did not breach our handbook, did not violate the students’ free speech rights, and did not defame the students,” said a spokesperson from the school to Fox News Digital in an issued statement.

“However, we respectfully disagree with the jury’s conclusion as to the lesser claim regarding the fairness of our disciplinary review process and are exploring legal options, including appeal as there is no legal precedent applying that claim to a high school.”

“We are grateful for the strong support of our community throughout this case,” the statement continued. “We look forward to putting this matter behind us so we can return to focusing solely on educating our vibrant student body and living the Catholic values of the Holy Cross tradition, which are rooted in hope, respect, integrity and family.”