‘Get Your Hands Off Me!’: White South Carolina Teacher Pushes Black Teen Against the Wall for Refusing to Say Pledge of Allegiance, Now the School Must Pay Her Family $75,000
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After two years, the family of Marissa Barnwell has reached a settlement with the school district that employed a teacher who angrily confronted the then-15-year-old honor roll student who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Barnwell was awarded $75,000 by Lexington School District 1. Neither side has commented about the agreement, first disclosed by YouTuber Hemant Mehta, aka “The Friendly Atheist.”
The altercation that triggered the lawsuit occurred in November 2022 as Barnwell was walking to class at River Bluff High School in Columbia, South Carolina.
Over the loudspeaker, the Pledge of Allegiance was being recited, as was the case every school day. Barnwell kept walking. South Carolina law does not require students to say the pledge, and those who choose not to may not be penalized. The Supreme Court has also ruled compelling students to recite the pledge is forbidden.
According to her complaint, Barnwell was approached by teacher Nicole Livingston, who demanded the teen stop walking and recite the pledge. Video footage confirmed the account. It also shows Livingston, who is white, pushing the Black student against a wall, repeating her demand.
“I was just in disbelief,” Barnwell said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “You can hear me saying in the video, ‘Get your hands off me!’”
Other students were in the hallway but only Barnwell was approached. Barnwell said in her suit that she believes she was singled out because she was Black.
Livingston snatched Barnwell’s ID and escorted her to the principal’s office.
“I was completely and utterly disrespected. No one has apologized, no one has acknowledged my hurt,” Barnwell said. “The fact that the school is defending that kind of behavior is unimaginable.”
Barnwell’s ordeal didn’t end there.
The agreement states that Principal Jacob Smith questioned her patriotism and asked her to abandon her vow of silence during the pledge.
“He’s just like, ‘Shouldn’t you be proud of your country?’” Barnwell recalled at the March 2023 press conference.
Marissa also said that she had never met Livingston prior to the assault and hadn’t recited the pledge since third grade.
“Once I realized that in those pledges you say ‘liberty and justice for all,’ is America really liberty and justice for all? After that,” she said. “I just realized I’m just not going to say this Pledge of Allegiance anymore.”
Barnwell said she had never met Livingston before their hallway confrontation. The special needs teacher continued working at the school after the incident, and it’s unclear if she was ever punished in any way.
In the settlement, according to Mehta, there is no acknowledgement of wrongdoing by the school district.
Barnwell will receive about $47,000 once she turns 18. The remaining money, about $28,000, will pay her legal fees.
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