OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) — A Louisiana teacher was charged with battery for allegedly pushing a student while asking him to remove a “BLACK LIVES MATTER” sweatshirt.
On March 4, Patricia Brignac, an Opelousas High School teacher, approached a student wearing a Black Lives Matter hoodie, asked him to remove it, and when he didn’t, she grabbed and pushed him toward an office, according to the Opelousas Police Department. The ninth-grade student now hopes Brignanc will never teach again.
The Patterson twins told NewsNation affiliate KLFY they’ve worn their hoodies multiple times this year; adding a school administrator told them their hoodies wouldn’t be an issue.
“It all happened so fast,” said Ronald Haley, the Patterson family attorney. “It was almost as if the BLM T-shirts these kids had was a bullseye, was the color red, and Patricia Brignac was the bull and charged them.”
The students say Brignac didn’t teach any of their classes. Their parents reported the incident to the school administration, which prompted the school to contact the police.
Brignac was charged with one count of simple battery on a student.
Haley said the twins expressed they want harsher discipline taken. First, that Brignac is fired by the school board. Secondly, her record reflects what happened, so she never teaches again.
“I find it troubling that she is a teacher at a majority black high school in Opelousas and harbors such strong feelings against Black Lives Matter, which essentially harbors strong feelings against black people,” Haley stated.
NewsNation affiliate KLFY contacted St. Landry Parish School District about Brignac’s actions. The superintendent’s office stated that Brignac is on paid administrative leave, but since it is a personnel matter, the district can’t say anything more until the legal process ends.
Brignac was issued a summons to appear before a judge on the battery charge. Haley added Brignac has been an educator for over a decade and called the thought that she has worked with impressionable youth so long with such a strong opinion “troubling” and “sickening.”
“The idea that Black Lives Matter is political speech is false and wrong,” Haley said. Black Lives Matter is a human rights issue.”