District Hands Pledge Issue to the State

The school board appears to be shelving a proposal to bring the Pledge of Allegiance back to the high school.

Trustee David Holden put forth the . During a discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, Holden said legislators tell him the state will be passing a policy to bring the pledge to all Michigan public schools.

“I have a confidence level it will be approved. Given that, I think it would be prudent on our part not to chase this policy down the track and find out the state has another policy,” Holden said. “If the (state) bill dies, we can bring it back to the board.”

The issue came up during a discussion item. No vote was taken.

The current policy allows for schools to have exercises like the pledge, national anthem and other patriotic activities. But they are not required.

The pledge is recited at Woodland Meadows Elementary, Pleasant Ridge Elementary and Harvest Elementary. It is recited periodically at Heritage Elementary and the middle school. It is not recited at the high school.

Trustee Craig Hoeft said he agreed with letting the state handle the issue for now. He also said the district needs to do more to give students the option to recite the pledge to the flag.

“We need to get the flag in every classroom and give students the option to recite the pledge if they choose to do so,” Hoeft said.

Holden said that many classrooms do not have flags. Those that do, he said, have a flag because the teacher provided it.

“Our classrooms only have flags if the teacher provides them. We want to provide for every classroom, but we don’t want to use classroom money,” Holden said.

Trustee Chuck Lesch said the district could work with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other organizations to have equip each classroom with the flag.

Not every trustee was happy with the idea of letting the state dictate the policy to the district.

“I am as patriotic as the next guy, maybe a bit more. I don’t want the state coming in and telling us how to run the schools,” said Trustee Todd Carter.

Aaron Mukerjee, the student representative on the board, said he had doubts that reciting the pledge every day would make students more patriotic.

“I think the pledge might be irrelevant if you are hoping to have students be more civically engaged. It might be a better idea to bring in veterans and have them talk about their experience to increase the level of civic responsibility,” Mukerjee said.

At the Jan. 10 meeting, Holden said reciting the pledge would provide a brief lesson in history and citizenship for every student, each day. He also said he didn't think it should be a controversial proposal.

“A lot of people focus on ‘one nation, under God.’ I prefer to focus on the back end of the pledge: ‘with liberty and justice for all,’” Holden said. “I think it works very well with some of the things we are trying to do to discourage bullying. It was the original diversity document before people started talking about diversity.”

Some students said having the pledge recited each day might have the opposite effect.

Mukerjee said he surveyed students on Facebook and after 160 comments, and he believes the policy might prove divisive. He said students who choose not to stand and say the pledge, for religious or other reasons, may be ostracized.

“Although I believe the intentions are excellent and personally have no problem with saying the Pledge of Allegiance, I think this could be divisive and roll back the efforts made to unify the student body,” Mukerjee said.

Senate Bill 637, passed in 2011, requires students in each public school district to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each school day. The bill also states a pupil shall not be compelled to recite the pledge if the pupil or pupil’s parents object.

At the Jan. 10 meeting, State Rep. Mark Ouimet (R-Scio Twp.) said he expected the House would pass similar legislation this year.