A nonprofit legal center representing a sixth-grade student at San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School contends that a classroom teacher violated several children’s constitutional freedom to not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
A March 1 letter, addressed to Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Steve Betando and San Martin/Gwinn Principal Claudia Olaciregui, requests corrective measures be taken so the “constitutional violation” does not continue.
“The students report that they have been wrongfully lectured and disciplined by their teacher for exercising their constitutional right to opt out of the Pledge of Allegiance,” writes Attorney Monica Miller with the Appignani Humanist Legal Center. “The students in question, for religious and personal reasons, do not wish to participate in the Pledge exercise in any manner.”
Betando said district staff immediately checked into the matter after receiving the letter and the teacher’s account of what happened differs from what the legal firm alleges. He noted that district policy gives students the right to stand or sit during the Pledge at school.
“The information that I got about the interaction (between the teacher and students) was very different from what the letter indicated,” Betando said.
The letter states that one student was “interrogated and questioned about her reasons for refusing to stand” and was “pulled out of class” on another occasion.
“The information I got was the teacher was just concerned about the child’s welfare and it didn’t have anything to do with that student’s right to sit or stand for the Pledge,” Betando said. “There wasn’t any admonishment or discipline.”
Betando said the teacher then contacted the parent to see if there was anything troubling the student or if they could clarify and give reason for the sudden change at school. The student had been standing for the Pledge earlier in the school year, but suddenly declined to participate.
However, the letter states that the teacher “informed the parent that the school has a classroom expectation that all students stand for the Pledge as a matter of respect.”
“The parent said such a requirement is unfair to students who choose not to participate, to which the teacher replied that it is (his/her) classroom and (he/she) can set whatever expectations (he/she) chooses,” Miller wrote.
The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Appignani Humanist Legal Center has made similar assertions and sent letters out to 53 school districts across the country, according to its website. The letters cite the First Amendment rights to free speech and religious liberty and accompanying court cases to support the stance.
In the letter to MHUSD, the organization demands district staff advise teachers and students that standing for the Pledge is an option, instruct teachers that they should not attempt to persuade students to stand during the Pledge, take no disciplinary action toward any student not participating in the Pledge and not portray nonparticipation as misbehavior.
