I happen to agree with the Ninth Circuit court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Well, I do believe that if students want to say it, they should be allowed to, but to make it an everyday part of school life makes it very uncomfortable for students who don't want to say it.

Case in point. When I was in 12th grade, I took a photography elective. It fell during the period where we had the pledge of Allegiance. For the first few weeks of the semester, the teacher would be very adament about ensuring that EVERYONE stand up for the pledge. While he didn't make us actually recite it (that would have been really tough), he thought that it was important to "show respect" for the flag, and he also claimed that was the law.

I knew this wasn't the case. I was feeling very disillusioned with the US at the time, and also really chaffing under the wording of the pledge, especially the "under god" part, and I didn't want to stand up...and I also wanted to preserve my rights, as well as those of my class mates.

So, once I looked up the supreme court case: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=319&invol=624 that said that it was unconstitutional to force any student to "show respect" for the flag. And when the time came in class, I remained sitting. The teacher was outraged. I told him my reasoning, and the legal precident, and he continued to claim that it was the law. So, he sent me to the principal's office.

The principal agreed with me and said that I didn't have to stand. The teacher really didn't like ths decision.

Now, prior to this incident, the teacher had said he was nominating me for this student leadership thing. The day after I did this, he told me that he wasn't going to nominate me anymore because he didn't think I was a leader.

He also wasn't very nice to me for the rest of the semeester, and I felt very uncomfortable in that class.

So, as my case illustrates, when the pledge is recited the way that it is in the schools of the United States of America, it still provides a kind of coercion, and puts a lot of pressure upon students who don't share the beliefs of the mainstream to participate and keep their mouths shut. Teachers need to be educated about the fact that the pledge is a voluntary act. However, Even if it continues to be done in a group, as a class, it still serves as a dividing point for students and that's not right.