A 15-year-old sophomore at the Waterbury Arts Magnet School claims in a First Amendment lawsuit that her teacher mocked and shamed her when she would not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

In the federal lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in Bridgeport, the girl, identified as N.F., also said Italian language teacher Ralph Belvedere falsely accused her of not doing her classwork and, on one occasion, brought another teacher in the classroom to lecture students who had not stood for the pledge on their supposed lack of patriotism.