Oh, help us. A 6th grade boy in Michigan was violently snatched from his seat for not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance, and it’s clear the school employee who thought this was a good idea needs a refresher course on how America works.
Stone Chaney, a student at East Middle School in Farmington Hills, MI, reports being forcibly removed from his seat by a teacher consultant on September 7 after peacefully choosing to sit rather than participate in the practice of pledging allegiance to a country that supposedly stands for a person’s right to choose NOT to pledge allegiance to anything if they want.
How’s that for irony?
Brian Chaney, the student’s father, said sitting during the pledge is a choice his son has made for years without trouble, choosing instead to pledge allegiance to God and his family, and Brian, in addition to his son and the whole family, feels this teacher’s action is a violation of Stone’s civil rights.
Appearing before the school’s Board of Education, Brian Chaney stated:
I’m going to say we’re quite disappointed. My wife and I, my father-in-law, my parents, my entire family — we’ve shed many, many emotions in the last four or five days. We are very disappointed that when we dropped our son off into the hands of East Middle School, we thought it would be nurturing hands. What we see on the TVs, what’s going on in America, it just came to my living room. Tears are done. I’m mad now. We’re looking for accountability.
The teacher in question has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation into the matter, and the school district’s superintendent, George Heitsch, told the Washington Post that the district supports each student’s right to choose for themselves whether to sit or stand during the pledge and that it is the district’s expectation that “every child and adult in our district be treated with dignity and respect.”
The fact that the district reportedly supports its students’ rights under the First Amendment is refreshing, but such a decision is not up to them anyhow, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, which states that no one in a position of authority can force another to pledge their allegiance to the country, and any attempt to do so is beyond the scope of their constitutional power.
I have personally always thought the forced act of pledging allegiance to the flag that pervades our school system is a little funny, to say the least. This is a country that prides itself on the many freedoms it allows its citizens — the freedom of speech and the freedom to peaceably protest being just some — and requiring anyone to pledge allegiance to anything fundamentally violates this right in every way.
In my early years as an educator, I worked at a school that required students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. I personally did not recite it, nor did I require my students to, but I did ask that they stand as a show of respect, and I did the same. I never had a single problem, and had one of my students flat out refused to stand, I certainly never would have thought violently forcing him or her into a standing position to pledge allegiance was within my purvey.
I do, however, remember a conversation I had with a former colleague, and what he said has stuck with me to this day: “It is your right to not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. And the fact that you enjoy that right is why you should.”
Powerful words that make you think, to be sure, but they in no way support the actions of the teacher who put hands on Stone Chaney for exercising his right not to stand. Because that’s the beauty of this country. A person’s right to exercise his beliefs in a peaceful manner. A right that should be protected, whether you agree with it or not. A right that is American at its core. A right that, if infringed upon, logically makes the perpetrator of the infringement guilty of being un-American themselves, if anyone is to be accused of such a thing.
Many see standing for the Pledge as a way to pay respect and thanks to the military, members of which put their lives at risk to protect the rights American citizens enjoy. Stephen Stevens, a veteran, is of this opinion and told Detroit news station WDIV, “I would love to be able to talk to them and get their side and explain my side so maybe we could come to an understanding. Because I get they have that right, but I don’t believe they understand what that right really entails.”
Brian Chaney has not yet sent his son back to East Middle School and reports having reservations about sending his child to a school that treats students in such a way.
I, for one, do not blame him.
To see Brian Chaney’s address to the Board of Education, check out the video below.