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The highest law enforcement official in Texas is alongside a school district that has expelled a student who refused to run for allegiance.
Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Lone Star State, publicly supported the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, sued by 18-year-old India Landry, and her mother.
"Schoolchildren can not unilaterally refuse to participate in the pledge," Paxton said in a press release on Tuesday.
"The US Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that parents have a fundamental interest in guiding the education and upbringing of their children, which is a critical aspect of constitutional freedom."
Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General, publicly supported the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, sued by 18-year-old India Landry and her mother
Last year, Landry was kicked out of her class at Houston's Windfern High School when she sat down through the daily oath of allegiance.
Although she claims to have played hundreds of times, the school district has decided to punish her.
Landry said his decision to sit was to stage a protest against police brutality and President Donald Trump.
"They said you got fired from here," she told the New York Daily News last year. "The other woman said that this is not the NFL, you will not do it here.
The public school district did not comment on what actually happened in the classroom, but said in a statement: "A student will not be removed from campus for refusing to run for office. We will address this situation internally.
The lawsuit against Cypress Fairbanks' CIO says the directors have been "flogged" by the recent controversy over NFL players kneeling at the national anthem.
"Students can not be expelled instantly, except in case of danger," says the suit.
Landry was forced to leave Windfern and enrolled in another school.
His lawyer, Randall L. Kallinen, accused Paxton of running a civil rights case to score political points just before a crucial mid-term election.
Last year, Landry was kicked out of her class at Houston's Windfern High School when she sat down through the daily oath of allegiance. Although she says she has spent hundreds of times in the engagement, the school district has decided to punish her.
"The reason he's challenged this case is that it's election time," Kallinen told The Houston Chronicle.
"It's an attempt to rally the troops."
Kallinen says the lawsuit will quote the US Supreme Court's decision in 1943 in the West Virginia State Board of Education case against Barnette.
The decision stated that public school students were not required to salute the flag or to declare their allegiance.
According to the lawsuit, the school principal, the deputy director, the secretary and two teachers violated Landry's rights to freedom of expression, equal protection and due process.
They are also accused in the trial of choosing Landry because she is black.
Paxton says the school district has acted correctly because students are required to apply for the pledge unless their parents write a letter stating otherwise.
The Attorney General has stated that advocacy is a "long-standing tradition" and that the school district has the right to take steps to ensure the status of "national flag as unalloyed symbol of our country" .
"The flag of the United States represents the values of freedom and justice that are at the base of this country and are defended by our armed forces," according to the Paxton court.
Landry was forced to leave Windfern (seen above) and enrolled in another school. His lawyer, Randall L. Kallinen, accused Paxton of running a civil rights case to score political points just before a crucial mid-term election.
"It is therefore deserving of the highest levels of respect and respect, expressed through every recitation of the oath of allegiance."
Civil libertarian groups have been outraged by the filing of Paxton, accusing the Attorney General of stirring up racial tensions.
"His decision, as usual, is based on racism and the need to keep some control over a person's personal autonomy," said Ashton Woods of Black Lives Matter Houston.
Andre Segura, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas, said students have the right to sit.
"Once again, it seems that Ken Paxton is using his authority to foster division within our state through a political stance," Segura said.
"Schools are supposed to be a market of ideas where students do not lose their first-amendment rights."
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