Principal who punished 3 who sat pledge foresees policy rewording

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended by their principal for not standing Thursday morning for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free speech rights.

"My son wasn't being defiant against America," said Kim Dahl, mother of one of the students, Brandt, who attends Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High School in western Minnesota.

Brandt told the Forum newspaper in Fargo that Thursday's one-day in-school suspension, "was kind of dumb because I didn't do anything wrong. It should be the people's choice."

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The head of the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union said that the school's actions against the students are unconstitutional, and his office informed the district of that today in a strongly worded letter.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/nation/18800444.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. It's the land of the free...

you are free to do what I tell you to do...

:sarcasm:

[nichomachus]

2. I refuse to pledge or pray at public gatherings.

Just won't do it.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. Me, too. No one should put words in someone else's mouth.

[question everything]

19. Same here, but I lack the courage to continue sitting

so I stand like everyone else. When they do the invocation, however, I stare straight; I will not bow my head..

[abq e streeter]

3. god bless that principal--coerced patriotism is always the best kind

( once again, I hope I didn't even need the sarcasm emoticon)

[greiner3]

4. I hate to use the sarcasm thingy too;

If the boneheads can't figure it out...

[BadgerKid]

8. That's a taserin'

:sarcasm:

[heliarc]

5. I remember the day that we invaded Iraq the first time...

And I sat during the pledge. And the morning after Libya was bombed and I wouldn't stand.



I got an earful both times. In high School from my teacher, and a self described Nazi. I don't think it pleased my teacher very much that she was allied to a self described Austrian-American Nazi. Hehe.

[muryan]

9. After we invaded Iraq I stopped standing for the pledge

Small town in Ohio, and they didn't like it. Ended up butting heads with my first period teach over it everyday. She ignored every assignment I turned in for half a year, giving me the only two F's I ever received in high school, and effectively removing me from the valedictorian race. Only after we hired a lawyer to step in and talk to the school board (she was having an affair with the superintendent, so he ignored my parents) did it come to an end.

[txwhitedove]

6. I was shocked recently at granddaughter's first grade play....

they have the Pledge of Allegiance, and then the Texas Pledge......really,
everyday, really.....a state pledge???

[MNBrewer]

7. leave it to Texas

:)

[sneakythomas]

10. The principal needs to read a little history.

The Jehovah's Witnesses fought and won this battle in 1943. They refuse to say the pledge for religious reasons (as an ex-witness I have issues of my own with them, but that's another story). At the height of WWII the US Supreme Court said essentially "one of the things we're fighting for is the right of these people to live according to the dictates of their own consciences."

Compulsary participation in the pledge has been unconstitutional ever since. I'm always amazed that more people don't know this.

[uppityperson]

11. I just LOVES this comment "... and freedom of speech are not free"

I am glad to see that it seems the fools are commenting and the ones who can think are voting.

[gratuitous]

12. "My son wasn't being defiant against America"

Yeah, but even if he was being defiant against America, he has the right to hold that opinion, too, Mom.

[Davis_X_Machina]

13. Shouldn't ever have come up....

...Barnette is not an obscure case, and this was hashed over ad nauseam four years ago, during the campaign, and again in 1988. The school board who adopted this policy in the first place a.) doesn't know the basics of its own job, and b.) needs to fire its counsel, if they let this come up for adoption.

[OnyxCollie]

14. West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1942/1942_591/

Fucking unconstitutional as hell. Sue 'em for all they've got.

[Mind_your_head]

15. "Mandatory Volunteerism" is a term frequently used in my child's school

how 'Orwellian' is that?

Good on the Mom's for standing up for their children....and to the ACLU as well for backing up the Mom's (and the students).

[Scooter24]

16. Frazier v. Alexandre (2006)

The student in this case settled for $32,500 for being forced to stand during the pledge.

At least the school is making an attempt to make things right.

[Festivito]

18. If "Stand for the pledge," then it's free speech I'd think.

If it's: "Stand!" That's a different command.
If "Say the pledge!" Free speech.
If "Repeat the pledge!" Hmm, maybe not.

Just thinking out loud.

Here in Islamic south-east Michigan, some of the kids rise for the pledge and then remain quiet for the two words: "under God." Two words ironically added to the one-time socialist-created pledge.