HOUSTON (CN) — A Texas high school teacher who was sued after he tried to force a Black student who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance to transcribe it and ranted he would pay for pledge objectors to move to a communist country has opted to forego trial with the payment of a $90,000 settlement.
In her freshman year at Klein Oak High School in Spring, a northern Houston suburb, Mari Oliver sat silently during the Pledge of Allegiance and was sent to the principal’s office by a geography teacher who claimed she was being disrespectful.
Oliver had her reasons for abstaining. She felt the part of the oath declaring America “one nation under God” failed to recognize many religions and conflicted with her religious beliefs. And contrary to its line about “liberty and justice for all” in the United States, she said, she and other Black people continued to face widespread discrimination.
Though her mother first told school officials during her sophomore year in 2015 to exempt her from the pledge, she continued to clash with classmates and teachers for sitting it out over the ensuing years.
In the summer before Oliver’s senior year, the school principal tried to squelch any further issues. He held a meeting with Oliver’s teachers and told them she did not have to participate in the pledge.
But one day in the first month of classes, the high school’s longtime sociology teacher Benji Arnold played Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the U.S.A.” and told students to write how it made them feel. He then told them to transcribe the pledge.
Oliver refused and drew a squiggly line instead.
The next day, Arnold announced anyone who had refused to write the pledge would get a zero and launched into a tirade, secretly recorded by Oliver, in which he made an offer to defiant students, aimed at Oliver: “If you can tell me two countries you’d rather go to, I will pay your way there if they’re communist or socialist. Most of Europe is socialist and it’s crumbling. Or it’s communism.”
Oliver, through her mother, sued Klein Oak Independent School District, its superintendent, Arnold, three other teachers and three principals in October 2017 in federal court, alleging the retaliation she had endured for not reciting the pledge violated her First Amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal dismissed all the defendants except Arnold in a March 2020 order, finding factual disputes precluded her from granting his qualified immunity defense and scheduled a jury trial.
In the opening paragraph of her ruling, Rosenthal noted such disputes rarely come up in federal court.
“It is rare to see a case alleging that a teacher or school district violated a public school student’s First Amendment right not to salute the flag or pledge allegiance to it. Why? Because the Supreme Court made it clear in 1943, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette . . . that the First Amendment forbids compelling saluting or pledging allegiance to the flag,” she wrote.
Arnold appealed to the Fifth Circuit. But a three-judge panel found it lacked jurisdiction, agreeing with Rosenthal it was best to place the dispute before a jury because it was unclear if Arnold had assigned the pledge transcription with the unconstitutional motive of requiring a statement of patriotism from his students.
With his trial date fast approaching, Arnold agreed in early February to settle the case and it was dismissed.
On Arnold’s behalf, the Texas Association of School Boards, a risk pool funded by Texas school districts, paid a $90,000 settlement, according to an announcement Tuesday from Oliver’s attorneys, Randall Kallinen, a Houston civil rights specialist, and Geoffrey Blackwell of American Atheists, a New Jersey nonprofit.
“The classroom is not a pulpit. It is a place of education, not indoctrination. This settlement serves as a reminder that students do not lose their First Amendment rights when they enter the classroom,” Blackwell said.
Arnold’s attorney, Thomas Brandt with Fanning Harper & Martinson in Dallas, did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the settlement.
Despite the litigation, the school district did not fire Arnold. He is now in his 51st year teaching at Klein Oak High School.
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