A Maryland teenage student refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the teacher had her basically arrested for it. On the first day she refused, the teacher sent her to the office (one wonders why the principal didn’t rectify the situation immediately). On the second day the teacher called the school police to have her removed from the classroom as the teacher insulted her and allowed other class members to taunt her.
The ACLU is involved and quite frankly I don’t think they should let the district off with just an apology. The district recognizes that she had the right, but there really should be zero tolerance for this. Give the girl credit for her courage, but this teacher’s actions have probably made the duration of the girl’s high school time a living hell. Quite frankly, having this teacher wag his/her finger at the kids he/she has already whipped up is a remedy which will do more to aggravate than mitigate. And personally I think the teacher should be required to attend a high school civics class and pass it.
31 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 26, 2010 at 11:03 am
Mitch
If the facts of the article are correct, the teacher should be dismissed immediately. The American Nazis (*) are going to be showing up more and more frequently now.
(*) I know the word is overused. I’m using it here precisely because it fits.
February 26, 2010 at 11:58 am
Joe Blow
Eric, in the new era of the medieval Dark Age, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised – someone lights a candle. There may be some hope for you yet.
February 26, 2010 at 1:15 pm
kaivalya
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Eric.
But seriously, do they still have High School Civics classes?
I went to High School in Southern California in the 90’s and we only had History classes – no Civics. I think the lack of Civics classes are a serious problem in our Democracy right now.
February 26, 2010 at 5:03 pm
ED Denson
Any idea of the student’s background. Takes a lot of nerve to stand up for what you believe by sitting down for the pledge. Are her parents card carrying ACLU members, libertarians, or some other kind of independent thinkers? Did she read something somewhere and decide on her own to do this courageous act? There must be more here than meets the eye. At this point its like a story from Little Rock in the late 1950’s which says “Black girl goes to class in white high school” without mentioning the national guard or the mob outside the school. I’d like to know “the rest of the story.”
February 26, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Bruce Ross
Eric,
Besides the civics class, which the teacher obviously needs, what would you suggest as a remedy? I mean, I think she’s a maroon, but one mistake is not a firing offense.
February 26, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Fred Mangels
Ed wrote, I’d like to know “the rest of the story.”
Agreed. When I hear such stories, I’d like to know the whole situation.
Bruce wrote, …I mean, I think she’s a maroon, but one mistake is not a firing offense.
I believe that should be “moron”. Still, I understand what you’re saying. Yet, just like with the girl, I can’t help but wonder what the teacher’s story is.
And for what it’s worth: I hate the Pledge of Allegiance.
February 26, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Moonshadow
It isn’t going to be just teachers such as the one mentioned in this article. There is a disturbing new movement among our law enforcement and military (among others) to . . .
Take a gander at this article from Mother Jones . . .
Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason
February 26, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Unk John
Maybe I was just lucky or whatever, but as a high school teacher for some years in a school just north of Bellingham, WA; I made it a point on the first day of school to inform the kids that no one in this country should be made to stand and recite the Pledge. I would then point out that anyone choosing to remain seated should also remain silent. They should remain as silent as I was … and I never recited it.
Only once did anyone have a problem with it. A young man told me he was convinced that I “hated America,” and he intended to complain to his parents. If they ever brought it up with the principal, he never mentioned it to me.
February 26, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Bunny
I do not like reciting the pledge of allegiance weekly at Rotary. I feel like a third grader. I show my allegiance by paying taxes. I just generally come in at “with liberty and justice for all” and I add please. Love America, hate doing the pledge.
February 26, 2010 at 10:10 pm
moviedad
Problem is, I actually believe in those words.
February 26, 2010 at 10:58 pm
ED Denson
Great point, Bunny. Also just how much value is a pledge that must be constantly renewed? Is the pledge understood to be transient?Only holding true until the next time you see a flag at a public assembly? I doubt it. Perhaps it is something to be said once in a lifetime. Surely the pledge of allegiance should have the power of marriage vows, otherwise what could it really mean? Probably too it should not be said by children under the age of consent, or people in coercive situations? I mean is it patriotism, or brainwashing, when children say it in school?
February 27, 2010 at 8:57 am
McKinleyville Kris
It could be a religious freedom issue as Jehovah’s Witness do not salute the flag (or worship idols in any other way.) There were several at my HS who did not recite the pledge, but they stood politely as the rest of us did. Don’t ever remember them being singled out for abuse as a result, though.
February 27, 2010 at 9:13 am
Bruce Ross
Fred,
No, I really meant maroon — tinyurl.com/mv3xle — but in any case I withdraw the abuse.
I don’t imagine the story’s so complicated. The teacher probably takes the Pledge and her duty to instill a sense of patriotism in her children seriously. Good on her.
Unfortunately, she just doesn’t know that loving our country means loving our Supreme Court’s defense of the right *not* to say the Pledge of Allegiance. And, really, not everyone’s a constitutional scholar.
Maybe the school administrators need to do a better job of explaining just what the rules are and how to handle a non-Pledger. I’m sure they will next year.
February 27, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Eric Kirk
Bruce – I disagree with Mitch in that I think dismissal is harsh, but I do think a public apology and perhaps a temporary suspension is in order depending on the extent of the verbal abuse.
On another tack, there is an irony to the whole Pledge debate. Edward Bellamy was an utopian socialist in the 19th century, famous for his novel Looking Forward. The Pledge was originally written (sans the “under God” provision later included ostensibly to combat “atheistic communism”) by his nephew, also a socialist.
February 27, 2010 at 6:43 pm
moviedad
I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America
and to the “REPUBLIC” for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with “LIBERTY,” and “JUSTICE” for “All”
So what’s the problem?
I think maybe the ‘indivisible’ part has to do with the secessionists.
No one should feel forced to recite any oath. But personally I feel this statement, along with the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights. Are powerful declarations of what our country is really all about. These are the ideals of the American people. Not the greed and capitalistic orgies that pass for patriotism these days.
If the ruling class actually believed in ‘America,’ they would not be enforcing racism or economic oppression of the poor. Or selling us out to the Chinese just to make a short-term profit. They wouldn’t be able to sleep in their $10,000 beds, knowing that they helped the health insurance industry make billions by causing the deaths of children and elderly people who’ve died from a lack of medical care.
Think of the true utopia we’d live in here in America, if powerful and wealthy people in positions of control actually felt bound to act according the pledge.
A refusal to recite the pledge, is an exercise of the liberty referred to in the pledge itself.
February 28, 2010 at 12:17 am
Unk John
The only part of the pledge that I have real trouble with is “under God.” I have less trouble with “to the flag,” but it is confusing. If they mean it in the way that it is a symbol, okay, but then why does it say, “and to the republic for which it stands…yada yada? The word “and” implies that the flag and the republic are two separate things and allegiance is pledged to borh
For those of you who might believe I have too much time on my hands, just wait till you read the next paragraph. It will prove you to be undeniably correct.
I don’t mean to be picky here, but Moviedad, you have just written something that I have always found interesting. You wrote, “… One nation under God, indivisible, ,,, etc.” Many people have pointed out that there is no comma after the word “nation”, yet people who have been reciting the pledge since they were children invariably hesitate after that word. The same is true of today’s children who recite every day in school.
What interests me most about it is what it says about human behavior. I believe that the hesitation is due to a sort of lemming like behavior, albeit far less abusive than the action taken by the lemmings themselves. The reasons for it go back to something Eric said in a post above.
The words “under God”, were of course, not written in the original version. They were added somewhere in the early to mid fifties. I was in maybe the fourth or fifth grade at the time. The new version confused us. Sometimes we would completely forget about the new words and sometimes we would get them in. However, because there had always been a comma after the word “nation” we would hesitate after that word. That continued even after throwing in the new words became the norm.
It wasn’t just the kids. The teachers and other adults did it as well. So, every new generation coming up was indoctrinated by people who would recite it incorrectly. Thus they grew up, and the next gener…well, you get the idea.
My sister says I’m an endless stream of worthless thoughts. They may be worthless, but that’s not less than nothing.
February 28, 2010 at 8:25 am
Moonshadow
If it did not contain the “under God bit” that was added I would have much less difficulty with it than I do.
It is also my view that patriotism without thought is a very dangerous thing no matter what the particular political viewpoint is. Just as activism without thought can cause much damage.
February 28, 2010 at 10:49 am
moviedad
Some would say that “Under God” is still secular, since it doesn’t say “under Jesus,” or “Under Yahweh.”
I don’t know. I’m not sure I believe that the country was originally founded on “Religious Freedom.” Seems the only freedom of religion they practiced was burning homeopathic healers alive, and stealing their farms.
The hypocrisy is not lost on me.
I would change it to: “One nation under the universal ionic bonding force of the known universe.”
Your points are well taken though. But these statements, held onto so tightly by the Tea-baggers and Neo-Cons; are the only weapons available to challenge these groups on their un-American activities. Supporting the rich, cutting the poor off from even the most basic human needs. Deciding a person’s worth based on their genetics.
I’ll be the first one to say 99% of statements made in political speeches are BS. For most of the wealthy politicians; the pledge, the declaration, the constitution, might as well been written by Karl Marx himself.
February 28, 2010 at 1:38 pm
suzy blah blah
under God
i’m not fancying any god, who isn’t, at the very least, willing to get on the bottom sometimes.
February 28, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Moonshadow
@Suzy . . . heh . . . heh . . . oh my oh my God as a bottom!
February 28, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Eric Kirk
Unk John – I actually had an embarrassing experience on my first substitute teaching position when I was up there – I guess it’s 20 years ago now. Yeesh.
Anyway, I was in a Lyndon High classroom and the bell rang. As I was about to take roll, one of the girls told me that I was supposed to lead the class in flag salute. So I had the class stand up, and then all of the sudden froze. It’d been so long I couldn’t even remember how it started. The same girl started it for me and glanced over with a smile. I’ll always be grateful for her Christian charity.
As for the concept of pledging to a flag rather than the Constitution or nation in general, Barbara Ehrenreich in her book “Blood Rites” about the history of war, claims that the emphasis on the flag itself is unique to America.
American patriotism, like the nationalisms of other nations, is celebrated on special holidays, and these are, in most instances, dedicated to particular wars or the memory of war. The Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Veterans Day all provide occasions for militaristic parades and the display of nationalistic emblems and symbols, especially the flag. On these and other occasions, such as commemorations of particular wars or battles, bugles are blown, wreaths are ceremoniously laid on monuments or graves, veterans dress up in their old uniforms, and politicians deliver speeches glorifying the nationalistic values of duty and “sacrifice.” Through such rituals and observances of nationalism as a “secular religion,” historian
George L. Mosse has written, war is “made sacred.”[42]
But the “religion” of American patriotism is also distinctive in at least two ways. First, it features a peculiar kind of idolatry which can only be called
a “cult of the flag.”* {*Other comparable, English- speaking nations–the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia–do not indulge in flag worship. According to the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 7, 1996), British efforts to create a mass market for Union Jacks have fallen flat: “Many don’t like what it stands for. A fair number aren’t sure when, or if, the law lets them unfurl it. Quite a few haven’t the foggiest idea of which side of it is up.”} Just as the wartime Japanese fetishized the emperor’s portrait, Americans fetishize their flag. A patriotic pamphlet from 1900 declared in unabashedly religious terms that the United States “must develop, define and protect the cult of her flag, and the symbol of that cult–the Star Spangled Banner– must be kept inviolate as are the emblems of all religions.”[43] Early twentieth-century leaders of the Daughters of the American Revolution held that “what the cross is to our church, the flag is to our country,” and, in more overtly primitive terms, that the flag had been “made sacred and holy by bloody sacrifice”.[16]
The American flag can be found in almost every kind of public space, including churches, and it must be handled in carefully prescribed, ritual ways, down to the procedure for folding. It is “worshipped” by displaying it, by pledging allegiance to it, and, occasionally, by kneeling and kissing it.[45] It is the subject of our national anthem, which celebrates a military victory signaled by the survival, not of the American soldiers, but of the American flag, when the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
And anyone who still doubts that the American flag is an object of religious veneration need only consider the language of the proposed constitutional amendment, narrowly defeated in the Senate in 1995, forbidding the “desecration” of flags.
February 28, 2010 at 6:17 pm
moviedad
Either way you cut it. A lot of good men died under that piece of cloth. Regardless of the “real” reasons for the conflict. In the military (Navy for me) the flag is held sacred just for that reason. Most of our people who die in wars, don’t understand the geopolitical ramifications of the conflict. It’s very simple, there’s our flag, there is where my people are.
People in the military have pretty deep opinions about the flag. It’s a powerful symbol for some, and merely a tool of manipulation for others.
February 28, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Anonymous
Slaves were also dragged across the Atlantic under that piece of cloth.
February 28, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Anonymous
And Native Americans massacred under it as well.
February 28, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Eric Kirk
Yes, and jay walking has taken place under the cloth as well. And hopscotch, and cake baking too.
Moviedad – but do members of the military in other countries have a similar reverence for their flag? Ehrenreich says no. I have no idea. It may be that we are a particularly religious country and so approach our rituals accordingly.
March 1, 2010 at 6:42 am
Mitch
moviedad,
I’m sure you are right that “a lot of good men died under that piece of cloth.” Probably some good women, too.
The problem I have with a teacher who would force a student to perform a pledge of allegiance is that he or she is desecrating what that flag stands for.
America’s flag is not, to me, about “this is where my people are.” America’s flag, to me, represents the incredibly important concepts that (1) the guy in charge is not a representative of the divine, and has no business making that claim; and (2) the government does not have the right to tell individuals what to believe. To force someone to salute that piece of cloth and assert that it represents “one nation under god” is to devalue the things it stands for.
It would be disgusting to appear at a veteran’s memorial and disrupt it, because that would be dishonoring the sacrifices made by so many in order to maintain the chain that has brought us freedom. For similar reasons, I find it disgusting to think of any public employee ordering a member of the public to salute anything and state something that they perhaps don’t actually believe.
If America’s flag were about “this is where my people are,” there would be absolutely nothing (in my opinion) more worthy about our piece of cloth than that of Canada, Mexico, or any other country’s piece of cloth.
March 1, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Unk John
Moviedad, in my 6 years in the U. S. Army I never got to the point where I looked at the flag as anything more than a symbol. I don’t consider the flag sacred and I think we really do take it far too serious. I mean, if a person is truly supposed to burn the flag if it touches the ground, then I start to worry about it being more than a mere symbol in the eyes of people. It seems like a form of worship and I can’t support that.
Anything else I might say about this topic would be redundant since I agree entirely with Mitch’s statement.
Eric, I think one of your other “Lynden stories” would be more fun to relate. The one involving a bus ride with a bunch of Australian High School basketball players. I believe some of them expressed their desires for cats, or something like that.
March 2, 2010 at 7:01 pm
moviedad
A “Symbol?” Silly me, I thought that’s what I was trying to say.
March 2, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Unk John
I’m sorry if I offended. I have no problem with that, and I really like your suggestion for replacing “under God.” It’s lengthy, but all encompassing.
March 2, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Eric Kirk
Eric, I think one of your other “Lynden stories” would be more fun to relate. The one involving a bus ride with a bunch of Australian High School basketball players. I believe some of them expressed their desires for cats, or something like that.
Won’t be as funny since I can’t mimic the accent in writing. But that was funny!
March 5, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Karateka
This seems to be yet another example of the a growing totalitarian state mentality, where the government is the object of religious worship. The state school system has created a system where the state is supreme.
A more visible and destructive example of this was the “Great Eldorado Roundup” in Texas, in which 439 children of an unpopular religion were legally kidnapped by the state and the corrupt local judge. Fortunately, the state appeals court and state supreme court stepped in and sent the children back to their homes.
http://parent-rights.blogspot.com/2009/07/scoreboard-flds-439-texas-0.html