SCRANTON – The Lebanon School District argues that a high school student who sued his school district and claimed his First Amendment rights were being violated by requiring him to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, had instead caused a disturbance in his classroom and suspended him as a result.
John Doe, by and through his father and next friend John Roe, initially filed a complaint on Jan. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, against the Lebanon School District.
Doe is a junior at Lebanon High School who alleged that throughout the months of October and December 2019, his First Amendment rights were violated because he was punished every day for not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance, as required by school district policy.
Doe said that his punishment included an in-school suspension being required to sit in the principal’s office during his first-period class, which was math. He claimed he failed the class for the first quarter of 2019-20, which has impaired his college admission prospects.
On Feb. 13, the plaintiffs filed a motion to redact identifiers, amend the caption and substitute fictitious names on the original lawsuit, which U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson granted on March 30.
The Lebanon School District answered the lawsuit on May 29 through its counsel Karl A. Romberger of Sweet Stevens Katz & Williams, in New Britain.
The district contested the large majority of Doe’s allegations, and added further clarifying points to its own position.
“Neither of John Doe’s parents sought to have him excused from standing for the pledge of allegiance and John Doe himself never before, and not prior to the teacher’s proper redirection, expressed any political conviction or religious belief relating to standing for the pledge of allegiance. Doe did not respectfully comply with the teacher’s direction to go to the Assistant Principal’s office and created a disturbance when eventually leaving the classroom,” the district said.
Though the district admitted that “John Doe sat quietly until the teacher properly asked John Doe to stand,” it says Doe instead created a disturbance in the classroom.
“John Doe sought attention and deliberately created disturbances in the classroom, and the school district implemented in-school suspension in a manner that permitted John Doe to catch-up and complete work in all of his classes, which he otherwise, from the start of the school year, was not completing,” the district asserted.
The district argues the court should dismiss Doe’s complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, that Doe’s claims are subject to equitable bar and reduction and the district is immune from the claims altogether.
The plaintiffs seek trial by jury, monetary relief, and all other appropriate relief.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 1:20-cv-00156
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com