Florida teacher suspended for forcing kids to say pledge on Sept. 11 or ‘go to your home country

[ashling]

Last edited Fri Nov 8, 2013, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

A Florida teacher was recently suspended without pay for five days after school officials said that she forced a fourth grade student to violate his religious beliefs and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that the student, whose Jehovah’s Witness religion forbids him from worshiping objects, was used to standing silent while the other students put their hands over their hearts and recited the pledge.

But on the morning of Sept. 11, Explorer K-8 School teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald forcibly placed the boy’s hand over his heart.

“You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag,” she said, turning to the class. “In my classroom, everyone will do the pledge; no religion says that you can’t do the pledge.”

“If you can’t put your hand on your heart, then you need to move out of the country,” the teacher reportedly added.

Hernando County Schools Division of Business Services-Heather Martin Executive Director later told Daigle-McDonald that nearly all of the students in her fourth grade class had recalled her telling them the next day to move back to their home country if they didn’t want to say the pledge.

“But that’s not what I said,” Daigle-McDonald insisted. “It was directed at citizenship. I was talking about pledging allegiance to our country, and if you don’t want to pledge to our country, you should go to your home country.”

*******

In its 1943 West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette ruling, the Supreme Court found that it was unconstitutional to force students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/06/florida-teacher-suspended-for-forcing-kids-to-say-pledge-on-sept-11-or-go-to-your-home-country/

also at:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teacher-forces-jehovah-witness-recite-pledge-article-1.1508783

http://news.yahoo.com/teacher-pledge-of-allegiance-us-160820504.html


=======================

read our constitution or go to your home planet

[gollygee]

1. Do you have a link

"Go to your home country" assumes the kid's "home country" isn't the US.

Obviously the teacher is an idiot. Kids don't have to do the pledge, and they don't have to explain why to their teacher. Forcibly placing a child's hand over his heart? Oh yeah, that'll make him love America.

[ashling]

5. oops

see edit

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Pls. provide a link to this story.

[ashling]

6. oops

made edit in op

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Thank you, Ashling.

I am glad I only lived in Fla for a short while. That place boggles the mind.

[HockeyMom]

3. Did this teacher ever consider that some RELIGIONS

consider it blasphemy to pledge (worship) to a piece of cloth? I know of two; JW and Wiccans. Maybe this teacher needs to take a course in Compartive Religions?

Edit: I worked with a TA in Florida who was a JW. She would not say the pledge either, and she was an EMPLOYEE of the district. Nobody forced her to say it. Also, when I started working for a Florida district I refused to swear to uphold the State of Florida Constitution. I was told I was not the first employee who refused that, and it was fine with them.

[Hekate]

11. Calif also has an exemption to employees signing an oath of allegiance to the state constitution

The oath was a product of 1950s McCarthyism -- but people can refuse based on religious principles.

JWs aren't the only ones. Quakers iirc established themselves early on as those who would not take God's name in vain (as they saw it) in court and elsewhere. It made both groups unpopular with monarchs and tyrants. In this country they are allowed to "affirm" rather than swear an oath on the Bible. This works also for atheists.

JWs are persecuted pretty badly in some other countries, possibly because they call so much attention to themselves by their assiduous door to door missionary work (the "witnessing" part of their name), which in turn bring attention to the fact that they refuse categorically to pledge allegiance or swear oaths of allegiance to any ruler or country.

That teacher needs re-education badly. Comparative religions classes won't do it -- she needs to be made to understand that she is an ignorant bigot and what the law is in the US.

If my kid had a teacher like that I'd transfer the kid and make a stink with the principal, the school board, and the ACLU -- just on the basis that we were a religiously tolerant family and that teacher was unfit.

[csziggy]

4. Hernando teacher suspended - LINK

Not the same headline, but from a source I trust.

Hernando teacher suspended after requiring fourth-grader to participate in Pledge of Allegiance
Danny Valentine, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 11:50am

SPRING HILL — The fourth-grader at Explorer K-8 School stood silently on Sept. 11, hands by his side, as his classmates recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

A Jehovah's Witness forbidden from worshiping objects, the boy's behavior was not unusual. He had never joined his peers in the ritual of placing his right hand on his heart. He had never spoken the words: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands . . ."

But that morning was different.

As the students recited, teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald took the boy's wrist and placed his hand over his heart. He protested, pulling his arm down and reminding her he was a Jehovah's Witness.

"You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag," Daigle-McDonald said, according to a statement the boy gave to a school administrator.

More: http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/hernando-teacher-suspended-after-requiring-fourth-grader-to-participate-in/2150894

In the 60s a JW was in my class. One teacher didn't understand hos religious objections. She discussed it with during the class, which was good. The boy explained his beliefs and not only the teacher but the entire class learned something which added to our understanding.

That was a couple of counties over from where this ignorant woman harassed her student.

[ashling]

7. One year my first class was geometry

I didn't say the pledge or the prayer. One day I just didn't stand up at all. The teacher, Mr. Ashby, took the first 20 minutes of class to let the class try and convert me.


they asked me what I believed in since I didn't believe in God or JC.

I answered that for one, I believed in humanity.

One guy said that if I believed in humanity did I think that if I stepped out the window and jumped of the ledge someone would catch me. I don't recall what I said, but i would like to have said the that, for one thing, I'm not as naive as Xtians...but I probably didn't say that.

I never did figure out exactly what that had to do with geometry. . . . except that these evangelists always have an angle . . . usually obtuse.


all of that is why we home schooled. My daughter was being bullied by Xtians.

[csziggy]

10. I was in school when the original anti-prayer SC decision came down

Most teachers were OK - one was not. SHE got suspended until agreed to not force her fundamentalist beliefs on the students.

I HATE that the same battles are being fought again - prayer & pledge, dress, abortions, etal.

[Capt. Obvious]

12. Amazingly, I get asked that at work

My answer: Physics/math.

[BigDemVoter]

9. Suspended?

Why in the fuck not fired?