Well, actually, this doesn’t have to do anything with ACORN, but I figured it was part of the mantra of EVIL EVIL EVIL THAT IS INFESTING THIS NATION and so deserved a shoutout.
So … back in January, a teacher got in trouble at a middle school in Maryland because he berated a student for not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance on one day, and then when the kid declined to participate the next day, called school security to escort the dangerous felon to the office.
The incident began Jan. 27, when the girl did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance during her first-period class. The teacher demanded that she stand, and when she did not, he ordered her to leave the classroom and stand in the hallway. He threatened to give her detention and sent her to the counselor’s office, where she stayed for the entire first period ….
The next day, the girl again refused to stand for the pledge. The teacher asked a school security officer to escort her to the counselor’s office, according to the letter. Students in the class mocked the girl ….
Not surprisingly, the kid’s parents were less than thrilled about this, and the ACLU took on the case, noting that the Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that students (or teachers, for that matter) could not be compelled to participate in the Pledge — a ruling supported by state law and referenced in the school system’s student handbook.
The district did precisely the right thing (well, at minimum): it recognized the law and took action:
A Montgomery County schools spokesman confirmed that the issue is being resolved. The middle school’s acting principal sent a letter home with students Wednesday that explains the situation and how the school is addressing it.
In addition to an apology, the mother of the girl was told that the teacher, who has not been identified by either side, and school administrators plan to lead the girl’s class in a discussion about the incident and their constitutional rights ….
Well, frankly, I hope the teacher in question gets a bit more than a slap on the wrist over this, but I applaud the principal and district for taking prompt action.
The situation has provoked outrage. But some of that outrage is … well … outrageous. E.g., that of the Family Research Council, whose apoplexy over the event is almost too cute for words.
ACLU invades Montgomery County
by Robert Morrison
February 25, 2010
Is it an actual “invasion” if the student was represented by the “ACLU of Maryland”? Wouldn’t that be more of a Fifth Column action?
The ACLU is at it again. This time, they are demanding an apology from a Montgomery County, Maryland, public school teacher. Behind this demand is, as always with this federally-funded outfit, the bludgeon-like threat of a huge lawsuit.
Because money talks, and jail (or, let us say, detention and public humiliation) is inappropriate in this case.
What was the teacher’s offense? Apparently, the teacher threatened a student with detention if she refused—as she repeatedly did—to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher sent the student to the counselor’s office for her refusal to stand.
Well, not just a threat with detention, but calling security to escort her there. Nice.
The ACLU immediately invoked the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). That case is often cited as a hallmark of American civil liberties, especially remarkable because it was handed down while the United States was engaged in a world war to defend democracy.
Remarkable, that even in the middle of war, some personal liberties were protected more vigorously than social displays of patriotism. That actually makes me feel really good about my country.
But the Court in 1943 said that students cannot be required to salute the flag or recite the Pledge. That was quite right.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
The Court did not say that students could not be required to stand quietly while other students recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Wait … what? Dude is seriously arguing that SCOTUS only said kids couldn’t be forced to speak or salute, but could still be forced to stand?
What part of “by word or act” does Mr Morrison not understand? Requiring someone to stand for the Pledge, even if not reciting it, would certainly seem to qualify as “prescribing” an “act” of “orthodox nationalism.” And I’m not a lawyer.
If we stop for a moment, we can all readily agree that it would be wrong to require, for instance, the children of legal resident aliens to pledge their allegiance to our flag. In the famed 1943 case, the parents of the children who declined to take part in the flag salute and pledge were Jehovah’s Witnesses. These people had a religious conviction that led them to regard pledging allegiance to the flag as a violation of the Commandment against making graven images. We should not force these students to violate their consciences.
Right, because it’s an overtly religious thing for them, and religion must, for the FRC, trump all other societal or legal obligations.
We are constantly told by liberals that the purpose of education is to prepare young people to take part in today’s complex and multi-cultural society. Does it? Surely, anyone attending a baseball game at Baltimore’s Camden Yards between a Canadian team and the home team is familiar with the two national anthems that are played. O Canada and The Star-Spangled Banner are both sung. What are Americans expected to do during the playing of the Canadian national anthem? Just stand silently and to show respect. It’s the civil and neighborly thing to do.
Right. It”s civil and neighborly. But it’s not legally required or coerced by the authorities the way this student was coerced by her teacher. It’s not “neighborly” when you’re forced to do it.
And hearing that having everyone jump up in lockstep for the Pledge is somehow in keeping for a “complex and multi-cultural” society seems a bit … um … backward.
There’s rich historical irony in this, too. For the words of United States’ national anthem were composed at nearby Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812. Those “rockets’ red glare” and “bombs bursting in air” were weapons of our British enemies. And the Canadians’ national anthem contains this line: “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”
Against whom exactly were the Canadians standing guard? Hint: It wasn’t moose or polar bears. It was us. The Americans repeatedly had failed repeatedly to invade and conquer Canada when it was a British colony. But now, Americans and Canadians are the best of friends. We stand politely for each other’s national anthems, which may be the only two such anthems in the world that are actually written against each other.
That’s actually an amusing bit of historic trivia. I’ll need to research that to see if it’s actually, y’know, true.
So is Morrison’s argument that while a student cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, she can be compelled to stand for it because it’s “civil and neighborly”? Really?
I would agree that she can be compelled to be non-disruptive — no talking or making noises or goofing around during the Pledge. But that’s more than a bit different.
Is the Montgomery County school case too trivial to merit national attention? No.
I agree, though for reasons other than I suspect Mr Morrison.
It illustrates how classroom discipline and American patriotism are under constant assault by the ACLU.
Or by people who compel displays of American patriotism, believed-in or not.
Our tax dollars are funding this radical outfit.
This one gave me pause. Our tax dollars fund the ACLU? I had to look that up.
And, lo and behold, it turns out (if you can believe a petition asking Congress to STOP FUNDING THIS RADICAL OUTFIT):
Congress, roughly thirty years ago, passed a provision in United States Code section 1988 that requires taxpayers to pay attorneys in civil rights cases.
So because the ACLU represents people (and, you know, they’re all those EVIL, UNPATRIOTIC, UNAMERICAN people, except when they’re not) in civil rights cases against the government, then when they win and get fees awarded, the taxpayers are, indirectly (and appropriately, having been party to the injustice), providing some of the funding for the ACLU.
A massive 2% of it, in fact.
(Other funding comes from card-carrying members of the ACLU. E.g., me.)
Morrison’s essay continues:
Thomas Jefferson said “to require a man to provide contributions of money for the propagation of opinions he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” Surely, the fact that the ACLU uses our tax money against us is a gross violation of our rights.
Maybe you can get the ACLU to represent you about that.
At any rate, it’s downright hysterical that the FRC is quoting Jefferson on the evils taxpayer funding of opinions and ideologies that one disagrees with, given that it (unlike the ACLU) is registered as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (i.e., whose funding is encouraged / supported by federal tax exemptions) and that it actively supports such taxpayer-funded moral diktats as prosecuting gays discovered in the military, grants for abstinence education, reserving governmental marriage benefits to heterosexuals only, etc.
It’s all in the name of “religious freedom,” of course but the FRC’s vision of religious freedom is freedom for their religion, for the insertion of their brand of conservative Christianity into not just the fabric of society, but of the law. Their position is that when the government imposes the right flavor of Christianity, well, that’s just wise and patriotic, no matter whether others find it in conflict with their faith and beliefs. But if someone tries to stop it from doing so, then the FRC’s supporters are having their religion disrespected and harassed and oppressed, which is (of course) so horribly unconstitutional. Plus, of course, the ACLU gets legal fees from it, which is just EVIL frosting on the cake.
Yes, you could cut the irony of their quoting Jefferson with a knife.
Does it matter? John Walker Lindh is currently sitting in federal prison. He is the so-called American Taliban who was convicted of fighting against Americans in Afghanistan. Young Lindh was educated in Montgomery County Public Schools. Was he taught anything about why he should be loyal to his country? Why jihadism is a threat to all our rights? I seriously doubt it.
Wait … I thought the Standard Talking Point was that Lindh was the product of that bastion of liberalism, Marin County. Now we’re supposed to believe that he’s a product of Maryland and … um … of not being forced to say the Pledgeu of Allegiance? (Though, presumably, he did.)
Is that what Morrison is arguing? Really?
By punishing a teacher who simply tried to give students the opportunity to express their patriotism and support for our country during a time of war, the Montgomery County public schools are doing nothing to avoid future American Talibans.
Wait … what? What?
The teacher in question didn’t “try to give students the opportunity to express their patriotism and support for our country during a time of war.” He tried to force someone to express their patriotism (or pretend thereto), and then disciplined and humiliated her when she didn’t. And we know that’s wrong because the Supreme Court “during a time of war” said it was.
And even beyond that … is Mr Morrison saying that compelling kids to recite the Magic Words every day will actually help “avoid future American Talibans”?
Don’t get me wrong. I recited the Pledge every day for many years. And I recite it proudly today, when circumstance arises. But what it means to me today, as an adult, is very different from the rote ceremony that started each school day. In many ways I wager that what the student in question was about on those days was more considered and thoughtful than 95% of the kids around her.
And that’s it — the essay chops off there, having gone from knee-jerk lambasting the ACLU for, well, being the ACLU, to the failure of the school to impose patriotic courtesy and somehow avert a generation of Taliban (which the FRC seems to define as “bad people who fight Americans” as opposed to “religious fundamentalists who will do anything to impose their faith on others.”
Yeah, there’s that irony thing again. Though it’s wasted on Mr Morrison and the FRC.