Atheist Group Wins $90K Settlement; Student Bullied By Teacher For Sitting Out Pledge Of Allegiance

[mahatmakanejeeves]

How many more times do school districts have to lose these cases?

Living in a free country means other people have the freedom to say and do things that hurt your feelings.

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Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

Atheist Group Wins $90K Settlement For Student Bullied By HS Teacher For Sitting Out The Pledge Of Allegiance
March 30, 2022

LOCAL NEWS
Michael Lopardi

Published: March 30, 2022, 4:11 AM
Updated: March 30, 2022, 11:38 AM

Former Klein ISD student wins $90,000 settlement following claims she was harassed for sitting out Pledge of Allegiance

A former Klein ISD student has won a $90,000 settlement years after a lawsuit was filed claiming she was subjected to harassment and discrimination for sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance, according to the civil rights group American Atheists.

“I’m glad that the defendant finally made the smart decision and settled the case before we went to trial,” said Geoffrey Blackwell, litigation counsel for American Atheists who said he was also an attorney for the plaintiff. ... The years-long legal case tied to Klein Oak High School has come to an end, he said.

Blackwell said the case was about a student, identified in court records as M.O., sitting out or declining to participate in the pledge at the school.

“I also believe that we live in a country where there isn’t justice and freedom for all and so I’m not going to stand for a pledge that says there is when there really isn’t,” the student said in 2017.

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Morning Mix

Girl pressured by teacher to write Pledge of Allegiance is awarded $90K

By Jonathan Edwards
Today at 6:28 a.m. EDT

Mari Oliver had for years refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at her Texas high school. Then, in her senior year, her teacher gave the class an assignment. ... She and the other students would have to write the pledge.

Those who didn’t would get a zero, sociology teacher Benjie Arnold told his class, according to a federal lawsuit Oliver filed against him. Then, he compared people who refused to recite the pledge “to Soviet communists, members of the Islamic faith seeking to impose Sharia law, and those who condone pedophilia,” the lawsuit says.

Oliver did not recite or write the pledge. Instead, the 12th-grader drew a “squiggly line” and turned it in. She claims that, as promised, Arnold gave her a zero, something he has since disputed.

In 2017, Oliver’s mother sued Arnold, the Klein Independent School District and several other teachers at Klein Oak High School who, according to the suit, engaged in a years-long campaign to bully Oliver and violate her First Amendment rights. Oliver, who has since become an adult and taken over the case, also claims school and district officials failed to stop that harassment.

{snip}

By Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered public safety for The Virginian-Pilot and Lincoln Journal Star. Twitter https://twitter.com/jonathanreports