COLUMBIA, S.C. — The oldsters of a 9th grade South Carolina scholar who mentioned she was once accosted by means of a instructor for strolling to magnificence as a substitute of preventing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance are suing the trainer, main, college district and state schooling officers.
Marissa Barnwell mentioned she was once strolling quietly to magnificence and made up our minds to not prevent for the pledge or a second of silence that adopted. A instructor yelled at her, faced her and driven her towards a wall.
Barnwell was once then despatched to the main’s administrative center, which she mentioned was once humiliating as a result of she feared she was once in bother. The main despatched her again to magnificence, however Barnwell mentioned he by no means let her know that the trainer was once flawed and he or she was once proper.
“I was completely and utterly disrespected,” Barnwell, 15, mentioned at a news convention Thursday, in line with The State newspaper. “No one has apologized, no one has acknowledged my hurt. … The fact that the school is defending that kind of behavior is unimaginable.”
Barnwell’s oldsters are suing the River Bluff High School instructor, the main, Lexington School District 1, and the South Carolina Education Department in federal court docket, announcing they violated the woman’s civil rights and her First Amendment rights to each unfastened speech or to not talk in any respect.
A state regulation handed greater than 30 years in the past calls for public colleges to play the Pledge of Allegiance at a selected time each day.
But that regulation additionally prohibits punishing any individual who refuses to recite the pledge so long as they aren’t disruptive or don’t infringe on others.
“The thing that’s beautiful about America is we have freedoms,” said Tyler Bailey, the family’s lawyer. “Students in our schools should feel safe, they should not be feel threatened for exercising their constitutional rights.”
Barnwell said she called her parents in tears and they said the teacher, principal or district never responded.
Lexington School District 1 said its attorney is working on a response to the lawsuit and didn’t have any additional comment. River Bluff High School’s website indicates the teacher and principal are still working at the school.
“I was just in disbelief,” Barnwell said, adding that she told the teacher, “Get your palms off of me.”
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