Texas High School Student Forced to Write Pledge May Sue Teacher

A Black former student may try claims alleging a Texas high school teacher violated her First Amendment rights by trying to make her write the Pledge of Allegiance and retaliating against her when she refused, following an order from a split Fifth Circuit panel.

Mari Leigh Oliver declined to recite the pledge because the “under God” language doesn’t match her religious beliefs and she believes there isn’t “freedom and justice for all” in America as Black people continue to experience widespread racial persecution.

Oliver’s teachers at Klein Oak High School were instructed that she wasn’t required to participate. She refused ...