You knew it was only a matter of time before the very thing all the “under God” supporters said would never happen to someone who refused to speak the words would eventually, in fact, happen. Seems down in Cincinnati a high school student was removed from class over the Pledge:
A Franklin High School drama teacher kicked a junior out of her class Friday for refusing to say “Under God” while reading the Pledge of Allegiance over the P-A system during morning announcements.
The teacher says she met with the student, his father and administrators before deciding to remove him. The ACLU expressed serious concern Thursday and it’s investigating.
So now when people ask me why I support banning mandatory Pledge recitals in it’s current form from schools I’ll just point to this news article as a good example. Don’t tell me kids who object won’t be punished for their dissent as it’s already happening.
I have a problem with trying to teach patriotism by coercion and rote recital anyway because A) it smacks more of indoctrination than education and B) the kids usually haven’t a clue what the hell it means any how so there’s little, if any, actual feelings of patriotism being generated in them. True patriotism isn’t something that comes from being forced to say a handful of lines in a set form with any dissent grounds for punishment. You can’t force it and trying to do so will just breed resentment which is the exact opposite emotion.
