CLOVIS, Calif. – A 75-year-old substitute teacher who wore a Black Lives Matter button to school in November is now banned from coming back, the result of the district’s strict policy prohibiting political speech.

“I was informed by an instructional assistant that the substitute teacher was wearing a political button and that some students were offended, and he wasn’t following the lesson plan,” Clovis West High School Deputy Principal Tony LeForge wrote in a Nov. 8 incident report cited by The Fresno Bee.

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LeForge approached substitute teacher David Roberts – a regular substitute at the school over the last decade – “and explained that we remain politically neutral on campus, and he took off the political button,” according to the report.

Roberts told the Bee he questioned whether the same standard would apply to a button with “In God We Trust” and LeForge replied that the national motto is also banned.

Roberts was removed from the school’s substitute list the day after the incident.

“A pin that reads ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not a political button. It is a peaceful request to end this violence. It is not a protest. It is not intended to be anti-police and does not imply that black lives matter more than other lives. It simply says they matter, too,” he said. “Clovis Unified claims you have to be neutral, but they’re not neutral. There’s a set of beliefs you’re expected to have there.”

The hot button issue in Clovis came just a couple of weeks after “Social Equality Educators” in Seattle organized a “Black Lives Matter to Educators” event that featured thousands of teachers wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to school with the district’s permission, EAGnews reports.

“We are united in our commitment to eliminate opportunity gaps. Teachers have a First Amendment right to wear their speech. We respect our teachers’ rights and desires to express themselves,” a Seattle school district spokesman told WGRZ in a statement. “T-shirts are a good visual. We hope the message inspires people to do the work on eliminating opportunity gaps.”

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Clovis Unified has a different type of policy.

The Bee reports:

Clovis Unified has a policy that forbids political activities conducted by employees on campus during normal operating hours, and, according to that policy, “engaging in political activity” during class time is cause for dismissal.

Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants pointed to another board policy that limits teachers’ lessons on “controversial issues,” which the district defines as a topic that is “likely to arouse both support and opposition” in the community.

Harumi Mass, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, believes Clovis Unified’s policy is perhaps problematic, and is questioning its actions against Roberts.

“The fact that you take a teacher off the list for wearing a button expressing a viewpoint that isn’t clearly prohibited by board policy raises questions if it’s because of the content of his viewpoint, and that raises serious constitutional questions,” Mass said. “One would want to know whether people who have worn other political buttons were treated this way.”