US Student Sues Teacher for Pledge of Allegiance ‘Humiliation’

June 26, 2025 News
Pro-Palestine students in the US protest against Israel's genocide in Gaza. (Photo: video grab)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The Palestinian-American student was accused of being disrespectful to the US military and glag, and told to “go back to your country,” according to court papers.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Arab American Civil Rights League filed a lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of a 14-year-old student from Michigan who accuses a teacher of publicly humiliating her for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, in protest at US complicity in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

According to court papers, the “ongoing armed conflict” in Gaza “is a source of great distress” for the plaintiff, identified as “D.K. (a minor),” whose family is of Palestinian descent. She is identified in media reports as Danielle Khalaf.

School ‘Failed to Act’

The lawsuit states that on three separate occasions in January, Khalaf “decided to quietly and without disturbing her class, remain seated during the class recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Her teacher at East Middle School, Carissa Soranno, “admonished and publicly humiliated D.K. for her actions.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Pymouth-Canton Community Schools District “was aware of the teacher’s actions and failed to act in ways that would protect” the rights of the student.

It said the teacher’s “acts and omissions” violated Khalaf’s First Amendment rights and state law prohibiting the school from forcing a student to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

‘Go Back to Your Country’

According to the lawsuit, Khalaf explained to the teacher privately that she is Palestinian and that she “has sincere and serious concerns about the role that the United States has played in the continuing violence in Gaza.”

Soranno allegedly responded: “Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country.”

The student has “suffered extensive emotional and social injuries,” including “inability to sleep, recurring nightmares, adoption of a more guarded demeanor, and high levels of stress.”

The court papers state that her “weakened emotional state has compromised her physical health,” and she suffered what her pediatrician described as “the worst case of pneumonia” that the physician had seen in more than a year.

‘Political Beliefs’

In a press statement, ACLU said that “Because of her political beliefs, D.K. quietly declined to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with her classmates on three separate occasions in January. In response, her teacher disrupted the class and chastised D.K., telling her that remaining seated was disrespectful to U.S. military forces and the flag, and that she should stand.”

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The impact of the incidents has also “negatively affected D.K.’s academic performance – a student with a nearly perfect record.”

‘Right to Freely Speak – or Not’

“The right to freely speak – or not speak – is a form of protest that is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy – even when its exercise creates controversy or makes others uncomfortable,” Bonsitu Kitaba, interim legal director for the ACLU of Michigan said about the case.

The plaintiff is seeking a judgement that includes a declaration that the teacher’s actions were “unconstitutional, compensatory damages, and attorney’s fees and costs,” the lawsuit states.

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Soranno is being sued “both individually and in her official capacity” as a teacher.

“It is tragic that, while we always hope our schools will encourage young people to be independent, critical thinkers, D.K.’s teacher and the school district failed her not only by violating her First Amendment rights, but also by humiliating her for daring to exercise them,” Mark Fancher, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s Racial Justice Project, said.

Insensitivies

Michigan is home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the US, with more than 240,000 residents.

“It is disturbing that a teacher who is trusted to teach our children would succumb to such insensitivities to one of her students knowing that the student is of Arab Palestinian descent, and knowing of the many deaths overseas in Gaza of family members of Palestinians living in metro Detroit, that she would add insult to injury and call the student out for simply exercising her constitutional right not to partake in the Pledge of Allegiance as a sign of protest,” Attorney Nabih Ayad, of the Arab American Civil Rights League, said.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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4 Comments

  1. “Soranno allegedly responded: “Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don’t like it, you should go back to your country.”
    She will go back to her country when Americans get the f**k out of Palestine and take the trash called “israelis” with them. Until then, this Soranno has no right to speak as such, especially that her ancestors were immigrants too.

  2. ” go back to your country ” …what? where she’ll be starved, probably killed trying to get food from the murderous ” aid ” centers led by the Israeli/US Nazis? What a callous thing to say. And, in case that teacher didn’t notice, she’s Palestinian-AME RI CANNNNN…idiot.
    More power to Danielle! She did nothing wrong, in fact she did everything right. She could have chosen to break windows and burn down the city but she chose civil disobedience. She chose to make her family and her peers proud, instead of caving to pressure. I hope she sues the crap out of that school. And that teacher will definitely apologize. She shouldn’t accept that apology, it won’t be genuine.

  3. Dystopian puritan u.s.trash. Bend over and take your daily servicing from your Chosenite masters. What sane person would want to live there ?

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