Forcing students to recite the pledge is the opposite of patriotic

In late January in Montgomery County MD a student at Roberto Clemente middle school was escorted from a classroom by the police for refusing to say the pledge. This went against the school's policy and was a result of the repressive views of the teacher. It is even in the Montgomery County Schools handbook that students cannot be forced to say the Pledge. This policy is even enforced by Maryland law. The URL for the Washington Post article is at the bottom of this entry.

Luckily for the teacher the student, her family and the ACLU are only requesting an apology to the student and the rest of the class as well as explanation to the class about why her action's were wrong. The school has said that they will support an apology but only if the student and her family give up her right to a lawyer. They sure are asking the student to give up a lot of her rights.

The issue of student rights has been a controversial one since the mid-twentieth century. While minors are not full persons under the law they are still entitled to the rights given to citizens under the Bill of Rights.

In my mind, the teach should be fired. Not only did she break school policy, she broke the law. Furthermore, she made a point to embarrass the student for her beliefs. Those are not the actions of a good teacher, those are the actions of a disrespectful person who should not have control over others, especially impressionable middle school students.

I am not disrespecting the Pledge of Allegiance. I proudly said it every single day of my school life. The problem is that there is nothing more unamerican than forcing your beliefs on someone else and controlling speech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022303889.html