The family of the Texas girl who sued her school district as a result of her refusal to wear an RFID-disabled ID badge at her magnet school, John Jay Science & Engineering Academy, was informed Friday that she can no longer attend the school.
The RFID-disabled badge, rather than an RFID-enabled one, was an accommodation that the school had provided to her. The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio said she could take that or be placed in her normally assigned school, Taft High School.
When she declined to accept this accommodation, her attorneys appealed the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which on Thursday denied the request to prohibit the district from removing her from the school for not wearing any ID at all. Now, she must report to Taft when the new semester begins next week.
This accommodation was sanctioned by a federal district judge who ruled against Hernandez. She initially had famously refused to wear an RFID-enabled ID badge on the grounds that it violated her freedom of expression, her freedom of religion, and that she was being denied equal protection.
“There has been no harm to Plaintiff, and there is no foreseeable harm to Plaintiff in the future,” Judge Orlando Garcia wrote. “On the other hand, tying the District’s hands and preventing its administrators to exercise their discretion always raises a concern. The scales tip in the District’s favor.” Judge Garcia added earlier this month that Hernandez and her family must inform the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio before the beginning of the new semester (January 22, 2013) whether she would accept this offer.
At this stage, Hernandez and her attorneys have no other court to turn to besides the United States Supreme Court, which is unlikely to take the case—seemingly bringing this saga to its end.
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