At my school people who didn’t say it were separated into In-School-Suspension and were ineligible for any AP courses, extracurriculars, or actual teaching (ISS was 100% worksheet-based).
If that was a public school, that’s actually illegal. There’s a giant stack of court precedent about it, including at least one SCOTUS ruling – you cannot punish or treat a student differently for refusing to participate in compelled political speech, and the Pledge specifically has been tested in this regard and you can’t force that. Some parent (or recent graduate who has turned 18) needs to sue that school system ASAP.
In many parts of the United States, if any parent or child sued over mandating the Pledge of Allegiance, their family would have to flee town for their own safety, after which the local judge would throw out the case for lack of standing because the student isn’t enrolled anymore.
Laws are pieces of paper. They mean what the men with guns say they mean. And in red America, the men with guns say shut up and salute the flag.
Personally, I think it should go a step further and people in positions of authority over children shouldn’t even be able to pressure them into this kind of shit.
At my school people who didn’t say it were separated into In-School-Suspension and were ineligible for any AP courses, extracurriculars, or actual teaching (ISS was 100% worksheet-based).
If that was a public school, that’s actually illegal. There’s a giant stack of court precedent about it, including at least one SCOTUS ruling – you cannot punish or treat a student differently for refusing to participate in compelled political speech, and the Pledge specifically has been tested in this regard and you can’t force that. Some parent (or recent graduate who has turned 18) needs to sue that school system ASAP.
Your faith in the U.S. legal system is touching.
In many parts of the United States, if any parent or child sued over mandating the Pledge of Allegiance, their family would have to flee town for their own safety, after which the local judge would throw out the case for lack of standing because the student isn’t enrolled anymore.
Laws are pieces of paper. They mean what the men with guns say they mean. And in red America, the men with guns say shut up and salute the flag.
Personally, I think it should go a step further and people in positions of authority over children shouldn’t even be able to pressure them into this kind of shit.