A week ago, I had learned something interesting. On Tuesday, February 21, state lawmakers in Arizona voted, 31-29, on House Bill 2523, which would require Arizona students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless excused by their parents or if the students are 18 years old.1 This bill, which amends Section 15-106 of Arizona Revised Statutes, requires that each public schoosl set aside a time period in which all students from kindergarten through the twelfth grade “shall recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag” unless if they are eighteen years old or if their parents request an exemption.2 The bill’s sponsor, State Representative Barbara Parker (R-Mesa), justified her stance by arguing that it would help to “educate children about this country, how much we love America and remember freedoms we hold dear”.3 However, not everyone agrees with Representative Parker in this regard.
Namely, House Bill 2523 had been criticized by not only Arizona-based press such as the Phoenix-based Arizona Republic,4 and the Tuscon-based Arizona Daily Star,5 but also the libertarian magazine Reason. In their reporting, Reason denounced House Bill 2523, arguing that Arizona Republicans “don’t have the power to singlehandedly quash the First Amendment rights of Arizona schoolchildren”, and the Supreme Court ruling West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) forbade state governments from forcing schoolchildren – along with their adult counterparts – to profess a vow against their personal beliefs.6 Indeed, the Arizona Republic made similar arguments, by examining West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.7 In that case, the Barnette family, family of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in West Virginia, sued their state’s Board of Education after their children were expelled for not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.8 The reason why the Barnette children did not recite the Pledge of Allegiance was they, as Jehovah’s Witnesses, were forbidden from saluting flags or other symbols of secular governments, which the leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses considered to be akin to idolatry.9 In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled that schoolchildren could not be forced by state governments from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.10 In short, there is nothing new to the issue over the debate of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, and the law in Arizona is simply another chapter in that discussion.
Indeed, I myself had written about the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. In 2016, I wrote that while some of the protestors who refuse to stand for the Pledge might have some legitimate reasons for not doing so.11 Equally important, I recognized that it was a violation of freedom of speech to mandate public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.12 While my views on the subject have not changed substantially since then, I had considered another stance regarding the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance.
Namely, I had considered the argument that the American flag itself is not a universally cherished symbol of the United States, and that public institutions such as state legislatures and school districts should take this fact into account. Of course, there are some people who would argue that the flag is nothing more than “a mere piece of cloth” that should not be ascribed any sentiments, let alone allegiance.13 While I had felt tempted not to include these somewhat dismissive sentiments regarding the American flag, I recognized some merits of the underlying argument that there are some individual Americans who may not feel that the letter and/or spirit of the Pledge of Allegiance reflects their personal values or cultural experiences.
Indeed, I have also recognized that there are some segments of American society who have been historically denied certain rights and protections that the American flag supposedly represents. This is particularly thought-provoking when some of those segments of society include people of color, particularly Indigenous peoples and African-Americans. Just to be clear: I am NOT insinuating that ALL people of color hate the United States or its cultural symbols. What I am referring to is that there are some individual people of color who feel that the Pledge of Allegiance glorifies or ignores the dark history of racism in the United States. When I myself had considered this, I recognized one specific element: A double standard based on the race of the protestors.
Specifically, when white American students refrain from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, they are subject to far less scrutiny than what would befall students of color for the same gesture, regardless of the differences in circumstances. Equally important, when white students refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, they tend to be seen as exercising their freedom of speech, expression, conscience and/or religion. However, when people of color refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance – even if they may have equally or even more legitimate reasons for not doing so than their white counterparts – they will be denounced as being disrespectful to the flag itself and/or the United States in general. The reason why it is crucial to consider this double standard is because statistics from the Department of Education have demonstrated that students of color are more likely to be subject to school discipline than their white counterparts for similar offenses.14 Likewise, African-American students are more likely to be referred to law enforcement for school-related offenses than white students.15 The reason why I felt it important to include these statistics is because, eighty years after West Virginia, students of color are clearly NOT being protected by that ruling. Namely, However, it is almost important to consider concrete examples of students of color being penalized for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
One example of this would be from 2019, where an eleven-year-old African-American student in Lakeland, Florida was arrested for ostensibly for disrupting a school-related activity by refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.16 In a similar fashion, in 2016, an then-14-year-old Indigenous student of the Pomo nation, Leilani Thomas was docked in her participation grade at her high school in Lower Lake, California, for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.17 To provide context, Thomas had refrained from honoring the Pledge of Allegiance since second-grade due to America’s history of genocide against Native Americans.18 In both of these cases, these students of color were reprimanded for refusing to stand for the Pledge by their teachers, despite the First Amendment supposedly indicating that the students had the constitutional right to do so.
In addition, I would like to point out that these stories of students of color refraining from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance managed to be broadcast on local news, while there are relatively few stories of White American students refusing to stand for the Pledge. What do you think that says about less about the Pledge of Allegiance itself, but rather how the media and society prioritizes the rights of White Americans? Personally, I think the disproportionate media coverage of students of color protesting the Pledge of Allegiance demonstrates that American society prioritizes not only the freedom of expression of White students, but also the right to privacy.
In conclusion, the debate over whether students have the right to refrain from the Pledge of Allegiance has largely been focused on the rights of White Americans. Namely, while White Americans have the right not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as stipulated in West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette (1943), students of color have clearly NOT benefited from the legacy of that ruling.
[1] Laurie Roberts, “Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance? That’s downright un-American,” Arizona Republic, February 22, 2023, https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2023/02/22/forcing-students-pledge-of-allegiance-parker-bill-un-american/69932498007/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
[2] State of Arizona, Arizona House of Representatives, House Bill 2523, 2023, 56th Legislature, 1st Regular Session, Phoenix, Arizona.
[3] Roberts, “Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance?”.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Howard Fischer, “Arizona House votes to require students say Pledge of Allegiance,” Arizona Daily Star, February 21, 2023, https://tucson.com/news/local/education/arizona-house-votes-to-require-students-say-pledge-of-allegiance/article_fa97e1f0-b22b-11ed-86e9-633eb3533b47.html (accessed February 24, 2023).
[6] Emma Camp, “Arizona House Passes a Bill That Would Force Children To Say the Pledge of Allegiance,” Reason, February 23, 2023, https://reason.com/2023/02/23/arizona-house-passes-a-bill-that-would-force-children-to-say-the-pledge-of-allegiance/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
[7] Roberts, “Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance?”.
[8] Jeffrey Owen Jones and Peter Meyer, The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010), 134-135.
[9] Jones and Meyer, The Pledge, 117-118.
[10] Camp, “Arizona House Passes a Bill That Would Force Children to Say the Pledge of Allegiance.”
[11] Centrist and Independent Voice, “Sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem,” WordPress, August 31, 2016, https://thecentristvoice.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/sitting-out-the-pledge-of-allegiance-or-the-national-anthem/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
[12] Ibid.
[13] Warren J. Blumenfeld, “I Don’t Pledge Allegiance (To Any Flag)”, Humanist, October 18, 2013, https://thehumanist.com/magazine/november-december-2013/up-front/i-dont-pledge-allegiance-to-any-flag/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
[14] Grace Chen, “Students of Color Disproportionately Disciplined in Schools,” Public School Review, May 21, 2022, https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/students-of-color-disproportionately-disciplined-in-schools (Accessed February 27, 2023).
[15] Ibid.
[16] Stephanie Claytor, “Mother Upset After Son Kicked Out of Class Over Pledge of Allegiance,” Spectrum News – Bay News 9, February 17, 2019, https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/02/14/mother-upset-after-son-kicked-out-of-class-over-pledge-of-allegiance# (accessed February 25, 2023).
[17] Bianca Graulau, “Student’s grades lowered for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance,” ABC, September 15, 2016, https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/students-grades-lowered-for-sitting-during-pledge-of-allegiance/103-319009465 (accessed February 25, 2023).
[18] Ibid.
WORKS CITED
Blumenfeld, Warren J. “I Don’t Pledge Allegiance (To Any Flag).” Humanist, October 18, 2013. https://thehumanist.com/magazine/november-december-2013/up-front/i-dont-pledge-allegiance-to-any-flag/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
Camp, Emma. “Arizona House Passes a Bill That Would Force Children To Say the Pledge of Allegiance.” Reason, February 23, 2023. https://reason.com/2023/02/23/arizona-house-passes-a-bill-that-would-force-children-to-say-the-pledge-of-allegiance/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
Centrist and Independent Voice. “Sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem.” WordPress, August 31, 2016. https://thecentristvoice.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/sitting-out-the-pledge-of-allegiance-or-the-national-anthem/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
Chen, Grace. “Students of Color Disproportionately Disciplined in Schools.” Public School Review, May 21, 2022. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/students-of-color-disproportionately-disciplined-in-schools (accessed February 27, 2023).
Claytor, Stephanie. “Mother Upset After Son Kicked Out of Class Over Pledge of Allegiance.” Spectrum News – Bay News 9, February 17, 2019. https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/02/14/mother-upset-after-son-kicked-out-of-class-over-pledge-of-allegiance# (accessed February 25, 2023).
Fischer, Howard. “Arizona House votes to require students say Pledge of Allegiance.” Arizona Daily Star, February 21, 2023, https://tucson.com/news/local/education/arizona-house-votes-to-require-students-say-pledge-of-allegiance/article_fa97e1f0-b22b-11ed-86e9-633eb3533b47.html (accessed February 24, 2023).
Graulau, Bianca. “Student’s grades lowered for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance.” ABC, September 15, 2016. https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/students-grades-lowered-for-sitting-during-pledge-of-allegiance/103-319009465 (accessed February 25, 2023).
Jones, Jeffrey Owen and Peter Meyer. The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.
Roberts, Laurie. “Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance? That’s downright un- American.” Arizona Republic, February 22, 2023. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2023/02/22/forcing-students-pledge-of-allegiance-parker-bill-un-american/69932498007/ (accessed February 24, 2023).
State of Arizona, Arizona House of Representatives. House Bill 2523, 2023, 56th Legislature, 1st Regular Session, Phoenix, Arizona.
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