Posted on 11/13/2009 9:16:12 AM PST by Category Four
A 10-year-old Arkansas boy named Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its LGBT citizens.
The West Fork School District fifth grade student clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology — a request that the principal declined to honor.
Laura Phillips told the Arkansas Times that her 10-year-old is “probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair.”
Will’s family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they’ve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They’ve been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt.
Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.
“I’ve always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all.”
After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something.
On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, who tried to make him stand up, but Will respectfully refused.
After several days of Will refusing to stand for the pledge, it finally came to a head. The teacher, Will said, told him that she knew his mother and grandmother, and they would want him to stand and say the pledge.
“She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up,” Will said. “I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ‘With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’ ”
Will Phillips still refuses to stand during the pledge of allegiance. Though many of his friends at school have told him they support his decision, those who don’t have been unkind, and often attack him personally with anti-gay epithets.
“In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay,” Will said. “It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad.”
Even so, Will said that he can’t foresee anything in the near future that will make him stand for the pledge.
Full interview at the Arkansas Times
Now I am officially smarter than at least one fifth grader!
Lets see, I can marry anyone of the opposite sex that will have me. They can marry anyone of the opposite sex that will have them. Once married to a person of the opposite sex I can adopt anyone after I demonstrate that I would be a fit parent. After they marry (someone of the opposite sex) they can adopt anyone after they demonstrate that they would be a fit parent.
Golly! Looks like we have exactly the same rights!
Wills family has a number of gay friends.
Some or all of which have molested, or will molest young Will.
In recent years, Laura Phillips said, theyve been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades
After all it's important for young Will to know what to do when he gets molested.
Laura Phillips needs to have her parental rights terminated and be charged with child abuse.
His name was JESSE DIRKHISING. Never let him be forgotten.
Word around here is that they are transplants from Texas.
he’s a 5th grader fro crying out loud.
What the hell does this kid think he knows about sex and the law at his age.
No his idea was given to him by some pervert
so his family have been taking to homosexual events and putting ideas into his head.
Then he does this crap and then says right(sigh) was taken away because they cannot adopt.
This is a clear reason why homosexuals should not get a hold of children because if they do then this crap starts.
What kind of adult would take kids to a sex event and before some homo troll tells me it is not a sexual event then they are there proclaiming their sexual preference and there is clearly sexual antics on display not to mention the freaks who attend
none of my children know what it means and they know nothing about sex , even my 12 year old would not know what this letter stands for.
these parents should be watched as their child is taken away as they are taking him to homosexual events and now doing this to him.
If they want to marry, and get a hold of children for the reason of whatever then leave Arkansas and go to MA and join the other sicko’s and perverts
I might just refuse to take the pledge until we deport IDIOTS and the BREEDERS of IDIOTS!
he told a teacher to jump off a bridge
yea parents , job well done hey (sarc), besides taking a child to homosexuals events for him to see freaks you have raised him to be arrogant, and have no respect for adults, or those in charge of you.
Typical left wing loon parents then
that is what does my head in.
They move down here and the moan about the laws down here.
That in it self shows how dumb these people are for if they had a brain they would have done some research
In my area one liberal woman moved down here(strange as this place in FL st augustine is very conservative).
Anyway after a couple of months she would moan about only one starbucks for 15 miles, that we do not have to wear helmets on bikes, or we do not have any kind of homosexual relationship .
Her moaning got worse and worse even to the point of her moaning about how we voted to drop taxes and there was no saks 5th ave that folks just ignored her and if she got them they would tell her to move back up north.
In the end she moved and we had a street party , she was so dumb that she thought we all came out to help her pack was just being nice even though we never talked to her.
No love we are here to speed up your process of getting you away from us and then one of the neighbors put a rebel sticker pon her bumper for her trip.
I bet she drove all that way to MA with that sticker she hated LOL
the media refuse to say this but a male touching a male is a homosexual and that would make most child molesters homosexuals
The attitude of this little boy reminded me of the pictures of Obama with his nose in the air...wrong-headed, overblown pride and self-importance grounded in the wisdom of men.
“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25)
How foolish and sad.
I have a 5th grader who doesn’t even know what homosexual means—then again, we have her and her siblings in Catholic school (here in Arkansas). Although we’re a red state, we have our share of libtards just like the rest of ‘em.
Let him transfer to the Moslem school. They’ll kill him there.
The best thing to do with these drama queens is to completely and absolutely ignore them. It will drive them nuts.
Indeed, he has the right to refuse to say it. But, the poor kid in this story is being used.
I never liked the way the Pledge is written, either. I'd rather see it replaced by the natural rights clause in the Declaration that begins, "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."
At one point, I considered myself an atheist, and I thought the "under God" portion left the nonreligious out. But, I NEVER told my children my opinion of the Pledge. I made sure they stood respectfully and put their hands on their hearts. I only told them, "You can choose to say the words or not, but it's important that you stand respectfully before the flag."
At the time, one of my sons was 9 or 10 years-old, and he belonged to a group that was giving speeches onstage. They were supposed to say the Pledge but forgot. My son stood up and reminded them, and then he was the loudest kid standing there reciting it. You have to picture me, his then-atheist mom, in the audience watching this all go down... lol. Oh, the irony. Haha.
As I said, the kid in this story is being used by people with a twisted agenda. It's a shame.
...or he is already being abused at home or some third party.
This little boy is being used for publicity for “the cause” of homosexuality.
The teacher should have ignored him when he refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, and used it as an opportunity to talk to the students about the greatness of our nation, and what the flag represents.
That would have focused the attention on the proper placement of pride in a much nobler cause than that of the poor misguided little boy. The other students would have had their patriotism reinforced, and the little boy wouldn’t have been given the platform for publicity that was being sought.
Attacking him rather than extolling all that he was attacking gave him the platform he was seeking. Teaching what is good destroys evil.
The little boy should be pitied.
These ignorant fruitcakes have no grasp about rights.
No one can take away rights they never had.
Just saying.
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