Teen's Romney-Ryan T-shirt dispute spurs lawsuit
THE PARENTS OF a girl who allegedly was ridiculed by her teacher for wearing a Romney-Ryan T-shirt earlier this year are suing the Philadelphia School District for infringing on her First Amendment rights.
THE PARENTS OF a girl who allegedly was ridiculed by her teacher for wearing a Romney-Ryan T-shirt earlier this year are suing the Philadelphia School District for infringing on her First Amendment rights.
A lawyer for the family of Samantha Pawlucy, 16, whose pink T-shirt sparked a national uproar in October, filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, claiming that the district "effectively banned" her from wearing the shirt and "permitted other students to threaten her verbally and physically."
The district did not return a request for comment.
Pawlucy's teacher at Charles Carroll High School, Lynette Gaymon, reportedly asked her to leave the classroom for her campaign flair, compared it to wearing a T-shirt for the Ku Klux Klan and said she was in a "Democratic" school.
Samantha left school for several days after the incident and eventually returned.Fellow conservatives and free-speech activists staged a rally in her support.
Throughout the ordeal, she reportedly was ridiculed by her peers and suffered "embarrassment, emotional distress, and mental anguish" and "feared for her safety," the suit alleges. She ended up transferring to another school.