Black student who refused to say Pledge of Allegiance was arrested for disruption, police say
Image from Shutterstock.
A Tampa lawyer says he plans to file a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education after the arrest of a sixth-grade black student who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then allegedly disrupted his classroom.
Lawyer Roderick Ford said the 11-year-old boy was exercising his constitutionally protected right of free speech when he was arrested Feb. 4, report the Ledger and the New York Times. The boy is a student at the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida also had criticized the arrest on Twitter. “This is a prime example of the over-policing of black students in school,” the ACLU said.
The student was arrested for disrupting a school function and resisting an officer without violence, according to a press release by the Lakeland Police Department. The Washington Post, Yahoo, CNN and Spectrum News 9 also covered the arrest.
The Polk County Public Schools also cited the disruption but said a school resource officer, rather than the school, had sought the boy’s arrest. The school said it did not condone the behavior of the substitute teacher who confronted the youth, and it respects students’ rights of expression.
The substitute teacher told police her story in a statement.
The student had told the substitute he wouldn’t stand because the country’s flag is racist, according to the teacher’s statement. The substitute asked the boy why he didn’t go to another place to live if it is so bad here. The boy replied: “They brought me here.”
The teacher told the student she came to the United States from Cuba and she would leave if she didn’t feel welcome here. The teacher then notified the school office because she did not want to continue dealing with the student, she said.
According to the arrest affidavit, the student refused multiple requests to leave the classroom and yelled at the teacher, saying she had told him to “Go back to Africa.” He finally grabbed his backpack and left the classroom while crying and screaming that he was “going to beat a teacher,” the affidavit says.
When the principal grabbed the boy by his arms, the youth told him to stop touching him and he would get the principal and everyone fired, according to the affidavit.
The prosecutor for the judicial circuit that handles cases in Lakeland told the New York Times the office would not prosecute the boy. “The case is closed,” said Brian Haas, the state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit.
But attorney Ford said the case was not resolved because the boy’s mother declined an offer to drop charges in exchange for his participation in a diversion program. Ford spoke with the Times before the statement by Haas.
