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Teacher Has Immunity In Student's Religious Discrimination Claim

By Howard M. Friedman

In C.H. v. Rankin County School District, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26719 (SD MS, March 30, 2009), parents of a high schooler filed suit alleging, among other things, that their son was discriminated against because of his religion. The instructor and director of an auto body class prohibited the student from returning to class when, after a suspension for alleged harassing behavior, he refused to go to counselling, saying "he only needed God and his father." Also the student and his father refused on religious grounds to sign an instructor-student classroom/lab contract, which outlined expected behavior. A Mississippi federal district court held that even if there was a constitutional violation, defendants had qualified immunity in the damage claim against them because it was not a clearly established constitutional violation.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 05, 2009 (boomark / email).