The incident began on a Wednesday in late January, when the girl did not stand for the pledge. Her teacher yelled at her, demanded that she stand and then sent her to the office for her defiance, Quereshi said. The school system confirmed the sequence of events.
The next morning, the girl again refused to stand for the pledge. This time, the teacher called two school police officers to the classroom to escort the girl to the office.
Source: The Washington Post
Not only are such actions illegal and unconstitutionally, but they are violations of explicit school policies. I realize that school policies should be the lesser of the three, but we should expect that even if a teacher isn't fully aware of all the relevant constitutional law, they should definitely be very familiar with their school's policies.
A school spokesman said Tuesday that the teacher's actions were a clear violation of the school's regulations, which are based on state law. The teacher, who also has not been identified by either side, will have to apologize to the student, spokesman Dana Tofig said.
"The policy is very, very clearly stated," Tofig said. "Our teachers are expected to know the students' rights and responsibilities. . . . A mistake has been made, and it will be rectified."
Quereshi said that as of Tuesday afternoon, no one from the school had contacted the girl or her family to resolve the issue. The teen's mother tried to schedule a meeting with school officials but was told they would not meet with her if she wanted to bring a lawyer, Quereshi said.
It's refreshing to see that the school isn't trying to defend the teacher and isn't trying to blame the student, as other schools have done in the past. Unfortunately, all the good will they might have generated with this is tossed aside by the reluctance to meet with the parents in a timely manner.
I'm not surprised at the reluctance to meet with lawyers present, but the fact is that one of their teachers did something very, very wrong and it doesn't look like they jumped on it quite soon enough (i.e., when the police arrived with the student -- that should have been enough to pull the teacher from the class room immediately).
They may have acted quickly enough to not get sued, they but they should take the risk of meeting with a lawyer present because parents and students have a right to have a lawyer present to ensure that all their rights are adequately protected. If the school had been doing a better job at that in the first place, a lawyer wouldn't be necessary.
The girl should still sue. She deeserves some compensation for the way she was treated. The school will settle to avoid a costly and embarrassing trial. But they should not get away with this scot-free.
Sometimes I get the impression that teachers think their classroom is their turf and they can do whatever they please, much as judges do in their courtrooms.
As in court, a teacher’s actions may be appealed to a higher authority: the principal, the superintendent, the school board. In this case, the appeal overturned the teacher’s action. That’s not always the case, and I’m happy to see it happen in this case.
Just FYI, WP has correction posted, was school security, not police http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022303889.html
Reading only the referenced article gives a limited view of what happened.
According to a letter from the ACLU to the acting principal of the school, the school administration’s reaction wasn’t initially encouraging:
In fact, it took almost four weeks, a letter from the ACLU, and articles in local and national newspapers for the administration to begin to react in an appropriate way to the child’s mother’s mild request for an apology. So far that has been limited to giving each student a letter to be brought home describing the teacher’s actions as an unfortunate incident that should not have occurred, and including a claim to have already apologized to the family, the veracity of which is brought into question by a statement by an ACLU person on location saying that as far as he knew no such apology had occurred as of the time the letter was sent. A school spokesperson said “mistakes had been made” and said the teacher would have to apologize to the student. Will this apology, if it ever happens and is genuine, be in front of the student’s class? Since it’s never described that way by school employees, the mother, or the ACLU, it’s safe to assume no.
The girl’s mother said in the Thursday article that she had been told there would be an apology and the “the teacher … and school administrators plan to lead the girl’s class in a discussion about the incident and their constitutional rights…” I’m sure the students will learn an important lesson by seeing their teacher in his usual position leading them in a discussion to make sure they understood why “what had been done” was an unfortunate incident that should not have happened.
Will wonders never cease? According to this local article that appears to get its facts consistent, the initial apology was indeed sent only two days after the school letter was sent home with the students. And more!:
The article was by Meghan Tierney, a staff writer for the online newspaper of local Maryland news, Gazette.com.
Regardless of how long it took, the point is the ignorant teacher was wrong and should go back to school herself for a little more education on individual rights in this country.
I don’t blame the parents for requesting a lawyer be present. I had a friend whose son was near expelled due to an incident (not involving religion). She wanted to bring so much as a tape recorder, and was told she wasn’t allowed, but that the hearing would be recorded and she would be provided a copy of the tape. After the session, her son told her that the secretary had actually turned the tape “off” shortly after the hearing began. My friend took the notice with a grain of salt, thinking maybe the boy didn’t see it quite right. But then began calling two days after the hearing to request the tape. After hounding them for this thing for more than a week, she was finally honestly told there was no tape. The school behaved pretty reprehensibly in other ways as well, and ultimately she resolved the issue pretty quickly by involving local media–which seemed to make the school really want to get his settled in a hurry.
Just to add my personal input as well, the kid was a good student, involved in sports, and the sort of kid inclined to be the first one to assist anyone who needed help. It was really sad the school got hung up on what could only be described as a technicality, which nearly ruined the boy’s educational chances (he was ending high school, so colleges would have seen this as a relevant issue).
Just to say: Don’t back down from your rights when it comes to a problem with your school. I’m a huge advocate of public education. I feel fortunate to live in a society where we at least attempt to offer some level of education to every child in our grasp. But abuses can occur, and should be quickly and reasonably addressed by schools and parents when they occur. Sometimes the issue is so cut and dry, there really is no excuse for not nipping it in the bud before it becomes headlines!
Again religious nuts = delusional psychotics
if we treated religious nut as the psychotics they are instead of as normal people with clear mental faculties these incidences couldn’t happen.
when you pretend the mentaly ill are normal you make the world a dangerous place