A Christian student in Tennessee who was compelled to change out of a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Homosexuality is a Sin” or face leaving the school grounds in 2020 has won a settlement from the school district.
The settlement signifies a triumph in the ongoing struggle to uphold the First Amendment in a country facing challenges from individuals advocating for certain ideologies. The Christian Post reported on Monday that the Overton County Board of Education reached a settlement agreement in November.
In the settlement, the board agreed to pay Brielle Penkoski, a student who graduated from Livingston Academy public high school, $100. Additionally, the board will cover all attorney fees and other costs related to the litigation.
Penkoski’s father, street preacher Rich Penkoski, expressed a sense of vindication with the settlement. He clarified that civil rights lawsuits don’t typically result in substantial payments, often just a nominal amount, such as one dollar.
“A lot of people don’t understand this, but when it comes to civil rights lawsuits … there’s this perception that somehow we get paid lots of money for these things. Well, it’s not true. Most of the time, it’s a dollar,” he told the Post.
“But Brielle got $100, which is way more than we thought she was going to get out of this anyway,” mentioned Rich Penkoski. He also highlighted that as part of the resolution, teachers from the 2020 incident were instructed to undergo First Amendment training courses, a condition he insisted on during the settlement process.
POLL — Should Public Schools Include Critical Race Theory and Sex Education in Their Curriculum?
The school did not have to admit it was wrong formally, but the settlement and the agreement to instruct teachers about the First Amendment likely will remedy the problem in the future. Brielle’s shirt specifically said, “Homosexuality is a Sin — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.”
The biblical passage reads, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
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Brielle’s father said regarding his daughter wearing the shirt, “She wanted to do this alone. She wanted to go there to … express her values like all the other kids do.” “They’ve got kids walking around with the pride symbol on their sneakers and pride clothing, and nobody bats an eye,” he said.
The official reason the school gave that she needed to remove the shirt was that it had a “sexual connotation” message. Rich Penkoski highlighted the double standard the school had in place regarding speech that has a “sexual connotation” because one of Brielle’s teachers had a gay pride sticker in her classroom.
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