A teenager who was suspended from school for allegedly practising witchcraft has sued the Tulsa Union school district in Oklahoma.

The district is preparing its reply to the suit from Brandi Blackbear, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Blackbear (whose father is native American and mother is of Sicilian extraction) was suspended first early in 1999 after teachers confiscated a story she was writing about a gun on a school bus. She was suspended again in December 1999 when a teacher suffered an attack of appendicitis - the school's principal accused Blackbear of casting spells.

Blackbear was alleged to be a practitioner of Wicca, a increasingly popular nature-based belief system. Her parents say she is a Catholic who happens to have read a book about various religions.