Student can sit during pledge under consent order withe Brownsville district
Brownsville Area School District officials have entered into a consent order that allows a 13-year-old middle school student to sit during the Pledge of Allegiance, and requires the school board to publicly announce that students can sit at its next public meeting.
Filed in federal court, the agreement was signed off on by district solicitor James T. Davis and American Civil Liberties Union attorneys Witold J. Walczak and Alexandra T. Morgan-Kurtz.
The agreement was struck Tuesday, one day after a student identified only as N.B., filed a suit that claimed her First Amendment rights were violated when she was punished with lunch detention and in-school suspension for not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.
As part of the consent order, the district will “cease and desist from punishing or sanctioning plaintiff on account of her refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance, and shall take appropriate and necessary action to prevent in-school harassment of N.B. by other students whenever they are or become aware of it.” The teen’s school record will be expunged of any references to the incidents outlined in the suit under the terms of the order.
For more information, read Thursday’s HeraldStandard.com.