The ACLU filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a Michigan public school district on behalf of an eighth-grade student admonished by her teacher for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, the Associated Press reported.
Danielle Khalaf, a U.S. citizen whose family is of Palestinian descent, told the AP that she declined to stand for or recite the Pledge for three days in January in protest of U.S. support for Israel in the Jewish state’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Khalaf, who is being represented in the lawsuit by her father, “believes that the deaths caused by the Israeli Defense Forces in Palestine were financially supported, and either implicitly or expressly supported, by the U.S. government,” according to the suit.
Carissa Sorano, the East Middle School teacher who has also been named in the ACLU lawsuit individually and in her official capacity as a teacher employed by Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, told Khalaf during class that her decision to remain seated was “disrespectful to U.S. military forces and the flag,” the lawsuit states.
“Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country,” Sorano said to Khalaf during a private conversation after the class ended, according to the lawsuit.
“The right to freely speak—or not speak—is a form of protest that is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy, even when its exercise creates controversy or makes others uncomfortable,” said Bonsitu Kitaba, interim legal director for the ACLU of Michigan.
According to the ACLU, Khalaf has “suffered extensive emotional and social injuries.”
ACLU attorney Mark Fancher stated that Khalaf’s “teacher and the school district failed her not only by violating her First Amendment rights, but also by humiliating her for daring to exercise them.”