A free speech nonprofit organization claimed “victory” on Tuesday after it demanded that an elementary school in Frederick County, Maryland, not mandate that students and staff participate in the Pledge of Allegiance.
After pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, the school reversed its previous stance that students were required to perform the pledge.
“The First Amendment protects not only your right to express yourself, but also the right to refrain from doing so,” Stephanie Jablonsky, FIRE senior program officer, said in a statement. “That includes refusing to salute the flag. Mandatory patriotism is no patriotism at all.”
The pledge issue arose when school officials at Twin Ridge Elementary School in Mount Airy, Maryland, emailed its staff to clarify their policy about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
The email explained that all students and teachers were required to “stand and face the flag and while standing give an approved salute and recite in unison the pledge of allegiance” according to the Maryland Education Code.
FIRE’s Aaron Terr said a school staff member reached out to their organization and his group responded by disputing the school’s policy with a letter to the elementary school’s principal. The letter claimed that the school failed to note an opt-out provision regarding the pledge.
In a letter to the school’s principal, Heather Hobbs, FIRE’s Jablonsky wrote that the organization was “concerned about the threat to freedom of conscience” presented by the school for “requiring students and staff to salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”
“While non-participation may upset others who believe the pledge is an important expressive
act, that reaction cannot overcome the First Amendment’s protection of those who decide to
abstain,” Jablonsky said.
The letter concluded with the demand that the school “correct its April 26 directive and notify staff of their rights and their students’ rights to refrain from participation in the pledge.”
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The elementary school and county school administrators sent a corrective notice stating that students and staff were free to choose not to participate in the pledge.
“Liberty and justice for all means liberty and justice for all, including students and teachers who dissent from the government position,” Terr said in a statement. “Forced loyalty oaths violate the very ideals that make America worth pledging allegiance to in the first place.”