Posted on 11/17/2008 1:25:12 PM PST by yoe
Vermont is at it again.
This time, residents of the Town of Woodbury - approximately 700 adults - are quarreling over 'how and where' students at the local Elementary School should recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
First some background, followed by some legal history, en-route to what may be the underlying story.
It seems that "No one's sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside" at Woodbury's 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 students in four classrooms covering grades K-6.
In September, parent Ted Tedesco, took the initiative and "... began circulating petitions calling for its return as a daily practice". Officials agreed to resume the daily pledge, but "not in the classroom". Supporters of the Pledge say the classroom is the place for it; but school officials would not accept parental input and choice in the matter.
Beginning last week, "a sixth grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering up anyone who wanted to say it and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the pledge".
The rationale offered by elementary school principal, Michaela Martin, "We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they're different."
Tedesco, and other parents who signed the petitions, didn't like that solution. They say it is "disruptive to routine and inappropriate because it put young children in the position of having to decide between pre-class play time and leaving the classroom to say the Pledge".
Tedesco added, "Saying the Pledge in the classroom is legal, convenient and traditional. Asking kindergarten through sixth graders who want to say the Pledge to leave their classrooms to do so is neither convenient nor traditional."
He's right.
And, it may - or should - be illegal, to require schoolchildren who wish to recite the Pledge to have to leave their classroom to do so.
Then, last Friday, the venue was changed again by Principal Michaela Martin, with school board chair Retta Dunlap in attendance.
"Just before 8 a.m., the principal herded all the school's students -- and a handful of adults -- into a cramped foyer that adjoins the first-floor classrooms and told sixth-grader Nathan Gilbert, 12, to lead them in the Pledge."
Following that exercise, "10 adults streamed... outside, forming a circle around Dunlap for a heated discussion in which they pressed for an explanation of why it couldn't be said in the classrooms".
Board Chair Dunlap told the parents "the format is up to teachers, not administrators or parents".
"The children will get used to it, and they'll know what's expected of them," she added.
H'mm.
Later, Principal Martin said "the point of having the whole school gather for the Pledge was to protect children who don't participate in it. If you're in a classroom with 15 students and you choose not to say the Pledge, it's much more obvious than a group setting. When they're saying it in a group of 55, it may not be so obvious. We don't want to isolate children".
In 1943, the United States Supreme Court ruled that "schoolchildren can opt out of reciting the pledge for religious reasons". In other words, schools were no longer able to compel students to recite the pledge or salute the flag, although they could continue to ask them to do so, on a voluntary basis.
Nothing has changed regarding that ruling over the last 65 years. Schools can continue to recite the Pledge every day and the teacher can invite every student to participate.
Four years ago, atheist Michael Newdow sued because he objected to this daughter having to 'listen' to the words "under God" in the teacher-led recitation of the pledge. The Supreme Court ruled against Newdow. That ruling sustains the permission to practice reciting the Pledge 'in the classroom'.
By now, you likely have figured out the 'story underneath the story':
Woodbury Elementary School needs either a handful of teachers willing to lead the Pledge each day within their respective classrooms: or, a principal who will get out of their way and let the teachers lead the Pledge.
As Justice Felix Frankfurter explained, "National unity is the basis of national security. The flag is a symbol of our national unity".
Now, perhaps, more than ever, our country needs the Pledge of Allegiance.
For all American Citizens: "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."
Richard Olivastro is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, president of Olivastro Communications - an executive leadership development company - and founder of Citizens For Change.
So instead you isolate children in an upstairs gymnasium every day and make THEM "feel" different?
Two words: Jack Ass! (or is that one word? Whatever, you get the point...)
The 1943 Supreme Court dcision said children could opt OUT of reciting the Pledge. It did NOT allow school systems to require students to opt IN. There IS a difference.
“We don’t want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they’re different.”
I’m sure there is a country somewhere in the middle east that would love to take your children and teach them a different pledge if they are so ashamed of ours.
Be gone!
So, what happens in a few months when the Oath Of Loyalty to The Obama, the Messiah, The One (piss be unto him) is compulsory?
Will we be able to opt out?
If I had my way, they would all be sent to defend the Freedoms they now enjoy. Then perhaps their narrow little selfish world view might change.
Lemmings, the lot of them.
I teach my grandkids to say one nation under God and amen, regardless....
Liberals HATE that we are a constitutional republic.
I always wonder why we are commonly referred to as a democracy and not, properly, as a republic. However, after thinking about it, and growing up in a public school system, I should know why...
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United Socialist States of America, one Obamanation,with many ehnicitiies of equal standing in the eyes of Allah and the sacred caliphate, with Submission and Sharia Law for All.
Nobody should ever be compelled to say something contrary to their own beliefs or wishes.
Yet another education administrator ducking his responsibility and refusing to make a decision.
I agree. However, the tyranny of a few should not dictate the norm to the majority.
Not really. Just form 'em up at dawn, size 'em up, dress-right-dress, and march 'em to the flagpole, to present arms as the Colors are raised.
In the evening, do the same for Retreat as the Colors are lowered.
Even AF guys can handle that. Bunch of gradeschoolers shouldn't have a problem with it.
/johnny
Wait until the class takes up the subject of "Heather Has Two Mommies" and you will be sent extra work to submit to diversity training and "tolerance".
"I swear I shall render unconditional obedience to Barack Hussein Obama, The Messiah, The One Leader and President of the United States and the American people, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfil my official duties, and that I shall at all times be ready to give my life for this oath."
Or perhaps your pupil takes issue with the myths and scaremongering in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
I agree with that in theory, but I fail to see the Constitutional principle that requires making children declare fealty to God and country.
Jerks. Our country is better off without them.
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