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Student contronted with attacks for reading Bible in Florida school

A 14-year-old Christian student in Florida, who was allegedly told to stop taking his Bible to school after he was repeatedly attacked and bullied by students and teachers alike for his faith, has filed a lawsuit “seeking significant damages because the school has destroyed his educational experience.”

 

The Dhillon Law Group filed the 206-page lawsuit against Mater Academy, a public charter school in Hialeah Gardens, on behalf of Nicolas Ortiz through his parents, Rafael and Lourdes Ortiz, on Monday.

According to the complaint, Ortiz, who is a high school freshman, began attending Mater Academy Cutler Bay in 2018 and remained enrolled until January 2022. During his time at the school, the teen would often take his Bible to school to read during his free time in a bid to further his faith, the suit states. However, many of his fellow students, school staff and administrators did not like it.

Several incidents detailed in the suit allege how hostile conditions became for Ortiz as he tried to live out his faith at the school. Rafael and Lourdes Ortiz allege that they repeatedly complained to the school about the bullying of their son, but nothing was ever done to protect him.

“On October 11, 2018, Mrs. Ortiz sent an email to the school notifying the school that, over the course of multiple days, students in Nicholas’ PE class had ‘threatened to hurt him,’” the lawsuit said. The students then exploited a personal relationship they had with the school’s principal “to wrongfully accuse Nicholas to get him expelled and rallied other students to exclude Nicholas from class participation.”

Ortiz was later even falsely accused of planning to shoot up his school.

Source: christianpost.com

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