A 15-year-old in South Carolina is suing her school district for violating her civil rights after a teacher assaulted her in the hallway for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Marissa Barnwell, a Black honor roll student at River Bluff High School, was walking to her classroom on November 29, 2022 — her birthday — when a teacher, Nicole Livingston, grabbed her and held her against a wall while the pledge was being recited.
Livingston, whom Barnwell does not have a class with, demanded that Barnwell stop walking and acknowledge the pledge, according to the lawsuit, which lists the teacher and the state Department of Education as co-defendants. Livingston then sent Barnwell to the principal’s office to face further discipline.
Although other students were walking in the hallway and not reciting the pledge, Barnwell was the only student targeted, the lawsuit notes. Barnwell was the only Black student in the hallway, and the school is predominately white.
After discussing the situation with Barnwell, the principal decided against punishing her and agreed to watch security camera footage of the attack. Barnwell’s mother later called the school, in tears, after learning that her daughter had been targeted.
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I was a lib in high school, I usually did the pledge but I decided to sit it out one day freshman year. Teachers didn’t do anything but fellow students accused me of being a communist all day, I was really just curious what would happen if I exercised my freedom of speech lol.
I was in high school from 01 to 05 and I remember sitting down for the pledge a bunch of times and no one batting an eye which is odd because it was the heyday of 9/11 and the spring of american neo-fascism blooming. Maybe the school didn’t want the :freeze-peach: headache.
I wore a CCCP shirt in high-school, then 9/11 happened and I got harassed for it. Luckily I was friends with skaters and punks who were willing to throw down. I stopped doing the pledge in junior year. I got some mean looks and some verbal harassment but nobody fucked with me directly. It helps to have friends that are down to scrap.
