Honors student outs herself as Athiest, kisses her honors good bye

Source

From source:

DENVER -- She was an honors student and a member of student council, but now Cidney Fisk is suing her former high school for violating her constitutional rights. Fisk graduated from Delta High School in 2016. She is accusing her teachers of sabotaging her grades, and chances for college admission and scholarships because of her religious beliefs. “Not only did they change her grades, they took away her recommendations and they ostracized her,”

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In the article, Fisk “outed” herself as an atheist. “Her grades were changed to F’s almost immediately after the Daily Sentinel article featuring Ms. Fisk was published,” the lawsuit says. Fisk said before the article, she had earned a 98 percent in her student government class but was dropped to a 70 percent because of her “'questioning of authority,’ particularly religious authority." According to the lawsuit, her teachers “told Ms. Fisk that she was being highly disrespectful and that if she wanted her grades to go up, she should ‘shut up’ and ‘fake it until she makes it.’”

What a disgrace. I think what bothers me the most about this situation is the authoritarian mindset of the school more than the religious aspect. Hopefully the lawsuit isn't settled out of court. There needs to be a precedence that public schools cannot sabotage grades because of religious beliefs.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

Religious freedom is very important. If true she just won the lottery and the tax payers just lost.

Depends on if it's a private school or public school.

Public school, yeah, the taxpayers are about to get hosed.

Private school that doesn't get public funds... Yeah, she's outta luck on the Constitutional front. She may be able to get a settlement on different grounds.

a reply to: seasonal

If she didn't go to court over it, wouldn't we all lose a lot more than money?

I suppose the high school could change her transcripts, seeing as how they wrecked her grades over religion. But, honestly, what is important is setting the precedence that if you play this game as a public school, you will lose.

The school administration might be able to deflect a few bullets to the persons responsible, but there needs to be a direct change of policy to avoid court battles. If the policy is there, then rectification should also be spelled out alongside it. Since there is a lawsuit, something tells me no such policy exists.

a reply to: cynicalheathen

It's a public school.

From their site.

Delta High School - 1400 Pioneer Road, Delta CO 81416 | 970-874-8031

Delta County School District does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, age, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability or need for special education services in admissions, access to, treatment, or employment in educational programs or activities which it operates. For more information please view our nondiscrimination policy.

So money is greater than basic principles. Okay.

Meant this as a reply to: cynicalheathen

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

Mixing church and state, par for the course nowadays.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

And Fundies say they are persecuted.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

They are though! See, even here, they are being persecuted for persecuting in the name of their religion!

Oh the lulz when she gets a free-ride to an ivy league and the Friday-Night Superstars and their families have to pony up extra dough for their favorite form of tribalism.

a reply to: OrdoAdChao

If true, the school is wrong and (in most cases) a money is awarded to the plaintiff. This usually spurs changes.

Something does not sound right with the story-why is being an atheist even being brought up? Their website doesn't give me an impression of a religious school.

Again if true, someone or some people are in deep doo doo for black balling this student.

Burn the witch...... she is of the Devil and Evil....... no, really.

a reply to: seasonal

They're a public school. Pretty cut and dry.

a reply to: seasonal

Something does not sound right with the story-why is being an atheist even being brought up? Their website doesn't give me an impression of a religious school.

I thought about that too. But she claimed she had several run ins with the religion at school. It is not uncommon for teachers and especially those in the administration to be religious. It appears that her stance on abortion is what pushed them over the edge. You know how emotional those types of people are about abortion.

She will win. Yup. Definitely.

originally posted by: OrdoAdChao
So money is greater than basic principles. Okay.

Meant this as a reply to: cynicalheathen

No, 1A is protection only from the government. Not private individuals.

If a private school were to do this, there would be no infringement so long as it did not receive any public funds.

Don't believe for a second that I support any kind of religious indoctrination. The username should give it away.

But if someone voluntarily goes to a private school, they are freely associating. They are free to quit attending said school and enroll in another one or in public school. Kids in public school often don't have the option to attend another school without penalty, and public schools are funded by taxpayer money, hence the "public." The 1A applies.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

It's a public school, there is no room for this style of shenanigans. Abortion is a legal procedure, and should not come up other than in history/civics class.

a reply to: Deaf Alien

The sex-hating she-weasel Shelly Donahue was their mandatory sex ed speaker too.

If it's a public school, they can't do that.

Of course, it has yet to be proven that it all fell out exactly as she stated for the reasons she stated. Maybe if Delta is a tiny little school in the back of beyond ... but in most school districts, I have a hard time thinking they would do all this just because she's an atheist any more than they would if she outed herself as some brand of evangelical or a Muslim.

Now in a private religious school I could see it causing problems, generally the students in high school are expected to be serious in their faith to some degree in some schools, and if she was in one of those, to have outed herself as a closeted atheist would be a violation of the school's policies and a lie. Generally a school like that would have a very dim view of that sort of dishonesty, too.

I think we can be fairly certain there's more to the story...

Better be, anyway...or someone is going to be very rich.

a reply to: cynicalheathen

This isn't a private school. And even if it was, wouldn't it be easier and more principled (especially for religious schools) to expel a student due to violations of policy? Pretty sure that would happen first and even a private school would be open to civil suit for altering grades. Any private school that values its academic credentials would expel before altering grades directly.

That of course wasn't an option here, since it was a public school.

I would say the vast majority of teachers are progressive so this doesn't make sense since her beliefs plays more inline than against.