UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 19-2157

HANNAH ROBERTSON, Individually and on Behalf of her Minor Child, R.R.S.,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v. ANDERSON MILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL; SPARTANBURG COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT #6; ELIZABETH FOSTER, Individually and in Her Official Capacity as Principal,

Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Spartanburg. Timothy M. Cain, District Judge. (7:19-cv-00668-TMC)

Argued: January 29, 2021 Decided: March 2, 2021

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Thacker wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson and Judge Niemeyer joined.

Eric Chalmers Poston, CHALMERS POSTON LLC, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Jasmine Rogers Drain, Thomas Kennedy Barlow, HALLIGAN MAHONEY & WILLIAMS, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. THACKER, Circuit Judge:

During the 2018–19 school year, the fourth grade class at Anderson Mill Elementary School in Spartanburg County, South Carolina was given an assignment that required each student to write an “essay to society” on any topic. The essays were to be compiled into a booklet, and copies of that booklet were to be placed in the fourth grade classroom so that students could read the essays throughout the remainder of the school year. Additionally, copies of the essay booklet were to be sent home with the students for their families to read.

R.R.S., 1 an Anderson Mill Elementary School fourth grade student, wrote the essay to society on the topic of LGBTQ 2 equality. Because Elizabeth Foster, the school’s principal, determined that the subject matter of R.R.S.’s essay was not age-appropriate, she instructed R.R.S.’s teacher to inform R.R.S. that the school was not going to include the essay in the fourth grade class’s essay booklet. R.R.S.’s mother, Hannah Robertson (“Appellant”), filed suit on behalf of herself and R.R.S., alleging that Principal Foster infringed upon R.R.S.’s First Amendment right to free speech.

The district court held that Principal Foster’s conduct was a proper exercise of the authority possessed by school officials to regulate school-sponsored student speech and dismissed Appellant’s complaint. For the reasons detailed below, we agree, and affirm the judgment of the district court.

1 Because R.R.S. is a minor, we use only initials to identify the student. 2 “LGBTQ” is an acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning.

2 I.

A.

R.R.S. was ten years old when the “essay to society” was assigned in the winter of 2019. According to the amended complaint, which is the operative complaint in this case, R.R.S.’s maternal grandfather is a member of the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, the amended complaint describes R.R.S. as a “proud advocate[] of LGBTQ rights.” J.A. 16. 3 For these reasons, R.R.S. decided to write about LGBTQ equality. Her essay, reprinted here verbatim, stated the following:

To society,

I don’t know if you know this but peoples view on Tran’s genders is an issue. People think that men should not drees like a women, and saying mean things. They think that they are choosing the wrong thing in life. In the world people can choose who they want to be not being told that THEIR diction is wrong. I hope people understand that people can hurt themselves from others hurting their feelings. People need to think before they speak because on