A street preacher’s daughter has received a cash payment as part of a lawsuit settlement against her Tennessee public school district after she was sent home from school for wearing a shirt that stated, “Homosexuality is a Sin.”
In 2020, Brielle Penkoski chose to wear a t-shirt that quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 to Livingston Academy high school.Â
The school’s principal took issue with the statement claiming it contained a “sexual connotation.”
Brielle was asked to change out of the shirt, but she refused.Â
She was then sent home.Â
Her father, Rich Penkoski, sued the school district for violating his daughter’s First Amendment rights.
“She wanted to do this on her own. She wanted to go there to … express her values like all the other kids do,” he said. “They’ve got kids walking around with the pride symbol on their sneakers and pride clothing and nobody bats an eye.”
Rich Penkoski was initially part of the lawsuit but was dropped from it when Brielle turned 18.
The Overton County Board of Education recently agreed to pay $101, three years after the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Although the school settled “without acknowledgment
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