The San Jacinto Unified School District has agreed to apologize to an atheist Monte Vista Middle School student because a teacher admonished the boy for not standing during the “Pledge of Allegiance,” officials with the American Humanist Association said.

The Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center sent a letter dated Oct. 9 saying 11-year-old Ivan Covarrubias has a legal right to remain seated during the Pledge. It also called for the school to apologize to the student and remove a banner from the teacher’s class reading, “Prayer changes things.”

The school responded with a letter from its law firm dated Thursday, Oct. 23, saying the teacher, identified only as Mr. Burns, “went beyond necessary and appropriate inquiry” when he later spoke to the student in the hallway and asked him questions about why he did not want to stand.

Ivan’s mother, Sandra Covarrubias, said Friday that she received a copy of the letter from the association but has not been contacted by the school district. The letter states an apology “will be issued in the coming days.”

“I see it as a victory,” Sandra Covarrubias said. “When I read the letter, I was very happy. At least they said they (will make changes). That’s a good thing.”

The banner has been removed and the school’s staff will receive training on the district’s policy, which already forbids a teacher from trying to force a student to stand for the Pledge, the district’s letter said.

“We’re pleased that the school district has recognized the rights of students to remain seated during the Pledge, as well as the need to keep references to prayer and other religious practices out of the classroom,” said David Niose, legal director of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, in an email.

The issue began Oct. 3 when Ivan, a seventh-grader, remained seated during the morning flag salute because it went against his atheist beliefs. He sais he was was admonished by his teacher, who spoke to Ivan about his beliefs outside the classroom before school the next day.

After Ivan told his mother about the incident, she contacted the Washington, D.C.-based American Humanist Association, a nonprofit group that takes up the cause of atheists.

In an earlier interview, Sandra Covarrubias said her family doesn’t object to the pledge itself, just the words “under God.”

School districts must respect the rights of all students, including atheist students who do not believe that this nation is ‘under God,’” wrote Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, in an email.

Contact the writer: psurowski@pe.com, 951-368-9567, cshultz@pe.com, 951-368-9086