Houston area student wins $90,000 settlement after being bullied by teacher for not standing for Pledge of Allegiance

Authored by chron.com and submitted by Dani_Mayonnaise
image for Houston area student wins $90,000 settlement after being bullied by teacher for not standing for Pledge of Allegiance

A Houston area student who was allegedly harassed and bullied by her teachers for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance has won a $90,000 settlement, according to the civil rights organization American Atheists.

The Texas Association of School Boards paid to resolve the case after the Klein Oak High School student's 12th-grade sociology teacher agreed to settle before things went to trial, the organization announced in a Tuesday news release, which was first reported by the Houston Chronicle's Rebecca Hennes.

In the 2017 suit, the nonreligious student says she was discriminated against and harassed by several teachers after choosing to abstain from saying the pledge out of objection to the words "Under God" and her belief that "liberty and justice for all" is not guaranteed for people of color in the U.S.

Despite knowing that the student was exempt from the pledge, the teacher, identified in the suit as Benjie Arnold, singled out the student and threatened to fail her for not observing the pledge. According to the release, Arnold told the student that what she did left him "no option but to give you a zero, and you can have all the beliefs and resentment and animosity that you want."

Arnold also offered to pay students to move students to Europe if they didn't like living in America, as evidenced by an audio recording of the incident. Due to the incessant harassment, the student temporarily withdrew to be homeschooled. However, the harassment continued and intensified when she returned to Klein Oak, the release said.

Geoffrey T. Blackwell, litigation counsel at American Atheists, said the settlement serves as a reminder that students do not lose their First Amendment rights when they step onto school grounds. "The classroom is not a pulpit," he said. "It is a place of education, not indoctrination."

Houston civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen, who worked in partnership with Blackwell, said in the release, "It is incredible—the time and money spent by the Klein Independent School District to stop a student’s free speech. School staff need to teach the Constitution, not violate it.”

Arnold is still a teacher at Klein Oak High School, according to Courthouse News Service, and celebrated 50 years with the district in 2020.

tootsonboots on March 30th, 2022 at 15:19 UTC »

I'm a teacher and it is astounding how many teachers (and admin) do not know that the Supreme Court decided decades ago that you cannot require a student to stand for the pledge. (Nor an adult at school for that matter.) I've informed a couple of teachers when I hear that students get in trouble for it.

In this case the student had an "exemption," but the law is that we all are exempt from compulsory idolization. That's the very reason the SCOTUS case came to be: Jehovah's Witnesses see it as a form of idolatry, which...if we're honest...it is. They do not stand for the pledge and that falls under their first amendment right, which includes silence.

earhere on March 30th, 2022 at 15:03 UTC »

I remember when I was about 11, I was mad one day and didn't want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher told me to stand and I just didn't. They continued doing the pledge and then after I was sent to the Principal's office and they called my parents. I ended up getting suspended for 3 days, but my dad took me to Blockbuster and I rented Super Mario RPG and we got a pizza and I played it for those days I couldn't go to school. Was still messed up though.

AudibleNod on March 30th, 2022 at 14:26 UTC »

Despite knowing that the student was exempt from the pledge, the teacher, identified in the suit as Benjie Arnold, singled out the student and threatened to fail her for not observing the pledge. According to the release, Arnold told the student that what she did left him "no option but to give you a zero, and you can have all the beliefs and resentment and animosity that you want."

+++++

All students can be exempted from standing and/or reciting the Pledge. You can do it in the middle of the pledge if you want. You can do it one day and not do it the next. And we can thank (or not thank if that's how you feel) those Jehovah's Witnesses for being at the forefront of 1st Amendment case law.