Pledge penalties, Round 2

Delaware students who decline to salute the American flag and recite the pledge could face punishment from the school. Furthermore, teachers who don’t require their pupils to take part in the brief ceremony are risking an even more severe penalty — jail time. A bill filed Friday would change that. House Bill 107 would strike from state code language mandating students and teachers “salute and pledge allegiance to the American flag,” something found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1943 case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.

• It should be a choice! If you don’t want to stand or say the Pledge of Allegiance, just stand there and keep your mouth shut. Allow those that want to. God forbid we should offend someone. — Bobbi Costello

• First, the kids have to be in school! So when is that going to happen!? — Sunnee Hills

• Well, I guess my mother would have been hauled off to jail as a child with this law on the books. While my widowed grandmother was trying to finish her education to support her kids, my mom lived with my great-aunt, whose religion did not allow anyone to say the pledge, so she was told not to do it. I think the school was also told she was not allowed to say it. It makes me coldly furious to think that my mother was put in this position as a small child in a very conservative part of the world, but it wasn’t her fault, and it is certainly not the sort of conduct that should incur civil or criminal penalties. — Kimberly Hoffman

• If you don’t stand for the special song, the magic sky cloth won’t freedom. — Tyler Cole

• It is common sense not to punish someone for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. As proven in the last few months, actions speak louder than words. — Jordan Irazabal

• Not needed. Work on more important items! — Deb Sudduth-Bates

• The fact that this is a thing is part of the problem. Why not have pride in your country? — John T. Reilly

• If you have pride in your country, you shouldn’t have to force people to pledge allegiance to it on a daily basis. — Pete Schonert

• I would like to think that our legislature has far more pressing issues in front of them as regards running our state than this legislation. — Bob Skuse

• Chipping away this nation. — Susan Lewis

• In reading this post, I see it says it was found unconstitutional in 1943 by the Supreme Court in a West Virginia case. And now, apparently, our House reps in Delaware have decided that they were not busy enough with failing Delaware in every aspect. They were going to review a 1943 Supreme Court case and get busy on eliminating the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. I am hoping that there is a younger generation coming up that will find what we are doing to our country right now is so outrageous that leaders from counties, cities, state and national will be fed up with all this absurdity and focus on the prosperity of the lives of all in the U.S., whether local or national, and that singing or stating the Pledge of Allegiance comes so natural, it is commonplace and we all proudly recite. — Diane Meyer

• Take it out of schools altogether. It’s archaic propaganda that no longer holds any water. If your heart is wrapped so tightly around it, say the pledge at home. “With liberty and justice for all” leans more towards prayer as it is. — Peter Rispoli