We all remember the morning ritual of the school day, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. High school junior Raymond Smith was illegally forced to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in an act of discrimination against the atheist student. The American Humanist Association wrote a letter to the Superintendent Donald Aguillard, detailing all the illegal things the student was forced to do:
“He was intimidated into standing by his teacher, Mr. Romero, who reportedly used an expletive, yelling at the student and calling him “f*cking disrespectful.”
When Adam remained seated,
“The teacher took him out into the hall and lectured him about soldiers dying (apparently suggesting that opting out of the Pledge was somehow an insult to the military). [The teacher] was dismissive, saying there was no religious conflict, and warned that the student would be ‘taken to the office’ if he continued to opt out.”
The teacher even went so far as to say he should move to a different country. This teacher should not get away with practicing discrimination against his students.
The school lied even further by saying:
“…(incorrectly) that federal law ‘has no say’ on the matter and that Mr. Romero has the right to set his own rules regarding Pledge participation.”
Standing for and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is completely voluntary, and those of us who don’t want to say we are one nation “under God” should not be forced to do so. Opting out of the daily recitation is perfectly legal and doesn’t make him unpatriotic or a bad student.
The school’s policy on the pledge is unconstitutional anyway:
“Throughout the playing (singing) of the National Anthem and/or the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, all students shall stand at respectful attention. During recitation of the Pledge, each student shall place his/her right hand over his/her heart.”
The school district is investigating their policies after this incident. The school needs to practice the separation of church and state, and they need to take their student’s religious beliefs into account when making policies like this.
Featured image by Donald Lee Pardue via flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
