The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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May 14, 2008

Our View: Encourage, but don't force, respect for Pledge

A heads-up for public school districts: You may want to dust off your student handbooks and reread Pledge of Allegiance rules. It could avoid some embarrassing legal contortions at some point.

Last week three eighth-graders at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High were suspended for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Controversy inevitably followed, and the school’s principal quickly announced that school officials were re-evaluating the policy.

The school’s policy had said that although students are not required to recite the Pledge, they are nevertheless compelled to stand as a signal of respect. The students, themselves, explained they do not disrespect the nature of the Pledge, but they do disagree with a policy that some would argue forces a belief system onto others. A good lawyer would argue that forcing compliance with such a policy prevents students’ right to symbolic expression.

In other words, the act of standing during the Pledge, to some, conveys the message that the Pledge is endorsed when, in fact, it might not be.

School rules on topics such as these are always accompanied by strong emotions. It is always difficult to pinpoint how free speech rights should be enforced with minors. Students, obviously, do not get to make the rules in their schools, because the responsibility of their education rests with adults. Schools, after all, exist to teach important lessons, and a patriotic respect for the principles in which this nation was founded upon ought to be available as part of the learning experience. The Pledge of Allegiance reminds students of their rights and responsibilities in this democratic society. But the Pledge shouldn’t be mandated, and isn’t, by law.

What apparently inspired some of the students in this case was the principle that individual conscience dictates the freedom to stand or not to stand. People disagree on the constitutionality of Pledge rules in school settings, and indeed the case can be made that Pledge violators poison proper school atmosphere.

Still, it would be rare, indeed, for any public school district to want to press the issue. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton’s Pledge rule, while attempting to walk a middle line, tends to invite disrespect rather than encourage it — provided there are those who wish to press the point.

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