Students punished for refusal to stand during Pledge
Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended for not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free-speech rights. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High School’s handbook says all students are required to stand but are not required to recite the pledge. “These three [students] didn't, and they got caught,” said Mel Olson, the district's community-education director. He said he backs the punishment, “being a veteran and a United States of America citizen, absolutely.” The head of the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union said that the school's actions against the students are unconstitutional, and his office informed the district of that in a strongly worded letter.
Source: Seattle Times, 5/12/08, By Paul Walsh (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
[Editor’s Note: In a 2006 decision summarized below, a U.S. district court in Florida ruled that a 1942 state law requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments, even though the law allows students to opt out, because they can only do so with written parental permission and still are required to stand. COSA members also can access an overview of the legal history of the Pledge of Allegiance at the second link.]
NSBA School law pages on Frazier v. Alexandre
Inquiry & Analysis, June 2002, By Thomas Burns