More on the Pledge lawsuit

The Palm Beach Post reports Cameron Frazier who brought against the Palm Beach County School Board over having to stand for the pledge of allegiance, is coming to a settlement. A vote on Wednesday will settle the matter local, but Frazier and his ACLU lawyer hope to change the state law that requires students to stand unless excused.

I blogged on this before. My predicition came true, a settlement is being made over this trivia, if its $5 its five dollars too many for the taxpayers. This is just ridiculous. Everyone, myself included have to do things we don't like. The constituion gives us no protection from these obligations. What I said in my first post still holds today- Grow up Cameron Frazier!

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A student is ending his fight with the Palm Beach County School Board over being told he must stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, but the battle isn't over for Cameron Frazier.

Frazier is aiming instead at eliminating the state law that requires local school officials to make students stand.
The school board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on settling the part of the lawsuit Frazier filed against board members, his teacher and assistant principal for $32,500. But Frazier, a Boynton Beach High junior who said he was berated in class when he refused to stand during the pledge, wants more than that.

Earlier this month, he named the state Board of Education and state Education Commissioner John Winn as defendants in his lawsuit, too.

That's because winning a lawsuit against the school district won't change the law.

"We're working to attempt to limit the Palm Beach County School Board's exposure and that of the assistant principal and the school teacher," said James Green, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Frazier.

But the state Board of Education is charged with making sure school districts follow state law, and Winn's job is to help the state board with their job, the suit says. State law says students must stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, even if they don't recite the pledge. The school district's student handbook cites that law, and requires students to have written permission not to say the pledge.

The suit contends that the state law that requires Frazier and other students to stand is unconstitutional because it conflicts with the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which provide for the rights of freedom of speech and due process. Frazier should be able to sit quietly during the pledge.

In the suit, Frazier says that on Dec. 8, his math teacher, Cynthia Alexandre, scolded him in front of his classmates when he refused to stand for the pledge. Frazier said he told her he hadn't stood for the pledge since he was a sixth-grader.