A western Nebraska high school cancelled their daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance last Monday in response to the ongoing government shutdown.
Pat Jones, principal of Alliance High School, told students that they would not be reciting the customary pledge because the government had been shutdown as of October 1st.
The Associated Press reported the following:
On Monday last week Alliance High School principal Pat Jones told students hey wouldn’t be reciting the pledge that day, pointing out that the federal government had been partially shut down since Oct. 1.
Some students were outraged by Jones’ decision, and one woman said her son stood up in class and recited the pledge anyway.
Jones was later contacted by the press but declined to give any comments, instead directing questions to district superintendent Troy Unzicker. Here’s to what he had to say, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Unzicker said Jones hadn’t cleared his plan with administrators beforehand, but Unzicker said he soon heard about it after school board members started getting calls and emails from parents. Near as he knew, Unzicker said, all the calls were critical of Jones.
Under district policy, time is set aside each school day for teachers to lead their classes in the pledge. Unzicker wouldn’t say whether Jones had been disciplined for the apparent policy violation.
Jones did get students talking about government, his superintendent said.
“There were some positive aspects that came out of it, but (skipping the pledge) is not something we will do again,” Unzicker said.
Simply put: no government, no nationalism.
