{"id":22827,"date":"2024-06-14T11:25:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T15:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22827"},"modified":"2024-06-14T11:25:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T15:25:35","slug":"school-criticized-for-requiring-students-teachers-to-recite-pledge-of-allegiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/06\/school-criticized-for-requiring-students-teachers-to-recite-pledge-of-allegiance","title":{"rendered":"School Criticized for Requiring Students, Teachers to Recite Pledge of Allegiance"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22833\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22833\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/06\/school-pledge_credit-Lightstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22833\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/06\/school-pledge_credit-Lightstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22833\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lightstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Maryland school is issuing a clarification on its policy about participation in the Pledge of Allegiance after it sent an email mandating students and teachers to stand and salute during the pledge. On April 26, Twin Ridge Elementary School issued an email to its staff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fredericknewspost.com\/news\/politics_and_government\/rights\/fcps-clarifies-that-students-teachers-may-choose-not-to-recite-pledge-of-allegiance\/article_6980fd9e-7096-5e6f-8c05-58e45d42efe4.html\">stating<\/a>, \u201cPer COMAR [Code of Maryland Regulations], all students and teachers are required to \u2018stand and face the flag and while standing give an approved salute and recite in unison the pledge of allegiance.\u201d An unnamed staff member at the school then shared the email with members of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which sent a complaint letter to the school\u2019s principal, Heather Hobbs on May 30, calling the policy \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d \u201cThe First Amendment protects not only your right to express yourself, but also the right to refrain from doing so. That includes refusing to salute the flag. Mandatory patriotism is no patriotism at all,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/news\/pledge-allegiance-or-else-maryland-public-school-forces-students-and-teachers-salute-flag\">wrote<\/a> FIRE Senior Program Officer Stephanie Jablonsky.<\/p>\n<p>The letter stated that Maryland\u2019s regulations also specify that \u201cAny student or teacher who wishes to be excused from the requirements &#8230; shall be excused.\u201d In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that forcing students to salute the flag or recite the pledge violated their First Amendment rights. The letter requested that the school respond by June 13. Jamie Aliveto, chief of schools and accountability for Frederick County Public Schools, responded to the letter, stating that the day after receiving it, Hobbs had clarified that anyone not wanting to participate in the pledge was allowed to do so. FIRE has since closed its case against the school after receiving the response.<\/p>\n<p>Kathleen Champion, a Maryland mother, spoke to <em>Fox News<\/em> about the case, stating that while she understood the legalities of the issue, she did not understand the lack of patriotism in the country. \u201cI do believe that everybody should stand for the pledge. I do understand that some people have religious beliefs that makes them have a difference from it, and that makes sense. I think that that should be the only exception that there is from it. But I really, honestly don&#8217;t understand why people have a problem standing and saying the pledge in this country,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/maryland-elementary-school-faces-backlash-over-pledge-allegiance-mandatory-patriotism\">she said<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cWe&#8217;re American citizens, and we should be proud of that country that we&#8217;re lucky enough to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Maryland school is issuing a clarification on its policy about participation in the Pledge of Allegiance after it sent an email mandating students and teachers to stand and salute during the pledge. On April 26, Twin Ridge Elementary School issued an email to its staff stating, \u201cPer COMAR [Code of Maryland Regulations], all students&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":22833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>School Criticized for Requiring Students, Teachers to Recite Pledge of Allegiance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Maryland school is issuing a clarification on its policy about participation in the Pledge of Allegiance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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Allegiance.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/06\/school-criticized-for-requiring-students-teachers-to-recite-pledge-of-allegiance","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"School Criticized for Requiring Students, Teachers to Recite Pledge of Allegiance","og_description":"A Maryland school is issuing a clarification on its policy about participation in the Pledge of Allegiance.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/06\/school-criticized-for-requiring-students-teachers-to-recite-pledge-of-allegiance","og_site_name":"Beliefnet 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