Alabama lawmakers may soon require all public schools in the state to start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance, joining forty-three other states with similar requirements.
The Alabama Board of Education currently requires public schools to allow students in kindergarten through high school the opportunity to recite the pledge every day, but state House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter contends some schools aren’t following the rules.
The Rainsville Republican told AL.com he realized last year that his fifth-grade grandchild didn’t know the Pledge of Allegiance, and it prompted him to do something about it.
House Bill 339, introduced by Ledbetter last week, would make it a legal requirement for all schools to start each day with the Pledge, though the lawmaker stressed students would not be required to recite it.
“I guess it gives it some teeth,” he told AL.com. “It gives leaders of the schools and principals a law in place where they won’t be afraid for their students to say it.”
“There may be some religious objections,” Ledbetter added. “We certainly don’t want anybody made to do it. But it does keep the Pledge in our schools.”
HB 339 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday, WHNT reports.
According to The Hill:
The National Constitution Center looked at the Pledge of Allegiance statutes or other guidance for all 50 states. In all, 32 states have laws or guidelines that specifically say students can opt (out) of the pledge on their own. Another 15 states have statutes that are unclear, delegate the choice to local schools or parents, or seem to indicate students must take the pledge. And three states (Iowa, Vermont and Wyoming) don’t have state pledge laws.
The issue of requiring schools to offer the Pledge and if or how students can opt out has repeatedly resurfaced in recent years as students clashing with school officials have drawn national attention.
A black student was expelled in Texas in 2017 over her refusal to stand for the Pledge and later reinstated, though she sued the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District and the State of Texas alleging discrimination. The student, India Landry, later settled the lawsuit with the district, but the Texas is still defending state law that requires parental opt out for students to sit out the Pledge, AL.com reports.
Last November, Missouri’s Parkway South High School fired teacher Jim Furkin after he thanked students in class who stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and one of the two students who did not stand complained to school officials, EAGnews reports.
A district spokeswoman told KTVI the teacher’s remarks amounted to “bullying.”
“How in the world can we go from thanking kids for saying the Pledge of Allegiance to being charged with bullying,” Frukin complained to the school board.
Meanwhile, some of the nation’s top Democrats are encouraging students to snub the USA and the men and women who sacrificed for freedom.
Last August, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton praised Catonsville Middle School student Mariana Taylor after the 11-year-old took a knee to protest during the Pledge in her sixth-grade classroom, then complained to the school board when her teacher told her it was disrespectful.
It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work Mariana. https://t.co/vnGheuWyJ0
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 15, 2018
“It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11!” Clinton posted to Twitter, highlighting a video of the Maryland youngster. “Keep up the good work Mariana.”
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