Boulder kids pledge to protest today

Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Waving signs and American flags, Boulder High School students this morning will stage the first of what could become many Pledge of Allegiance protests in the school courtyard.

Members of the activist Student Worker club are inviting their peers to leave class every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. — when the pledge is recited over the intercom — and meet in the courtyard to say a revised version of the pledge that doesn't reference God.

Club President Emma Martens, a Boulder High senior who's leading the protest, wrote this new version: "I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all."

Members of the student group say they have three main gripes with theway the traditional pledge is read at the start of second-period classes: It takes away from school time; it's ignored or disrespected by mocking teens; and the phrase, "one nation, under God," violates the separation of church and state.

"Boulder High has a highly diverse population, not all of whom believe in God, or one God," Martens said. "We didn't think it was fair for the whole school to have to listen to it.

"It's almost religious oppression," she said.

Until this fall, Boulder High invited students wanting to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to meet at 7:22 a.m. in the auditorium — before the first period starts at 7:30 a.m. Officials moved the pledge because parents and students expressed concern that Boulder High wasn't complying with a state law that requires schools to "provide an opportunity each school day" for students to recite the pledge.

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Former Boulder High student Fleet White III told the school board in 2005 that Boulder High was violating the law by making students get to school eight minutes early if they wanted to say the pledge.

"It's selective compliance with the law," he said at the time. "It's not sending a very good message."

White, who's at school on the East Coast, couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

His sister, Daphne White, was behind a controversy that erupted earlier this year over a Conference on World Affairs panel at Boulder High about sex, teens and drugs. In May, she and her parents complained to the school board that the sex panel, which some students were required to attend, was one-sided and discredited religious views and abstinence.

In their own words

Here's the Student Worker revised version of the Pledge of Allegiance:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all."

Source: Student Worker President

Emma Martens

Following Fleet White's 2005 Pledge of Allegiance complaint, some parents joined the fray in protest of the pre-school pledge. After reviewing the law, Boulder High officials decided to move it to the second period, assistant principal Lynn Donnelly said.

"By doing it before school, it wasn't being done during the school day, so it was not fitting the letter of the law," Donnelly said.

Now, she said, Boulder High is meeting the "expectations of the legislators."

Donnelly said Boulder High's daily pledge announcement starts with this invitation: "Please stand if you want to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance."

"Then they go on with class," she said. "It's not disruptive."

Senior Hannah Regan-Smith, 17, said members of the student activist group want Boulder High to comply with state law, "But it can be done in a less disrespectful way."

The group has written a letter to Principal Bud Jenkins asking that the recitation be held in the auditorium during both of the school's two lunch hours.

Pledge provisions

Here are the Boulder Valley School District's Pledge of Allegiance guidelines and the state law:

Colorado law requires public schools to provide an opportunity to recite the pledge every day. According to Colorado law 22-1-106, "Each school district shall provide an opportunity each school day for willing students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public elementary and secondary educational institutions. Any person not wishing to participate in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance shall be exempt from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and need not participate."

Earlier this year, district officials sent these Pledge of Allegiance recommendations to Boulder Valley schools:

The pledge should be a schoolwide activity that's initiated, if possible, through the public-address system with this introduction: "Please stand and join in the Pledge of Allegiance."

Anyone — students, teachers or other staff members — can be excused from reciting the pledge. People who abstain don't need to provide a reason for their objection.

Students who don't participate shouldn't be disciplined or forced to stand, leave the room or ostracized in any way. They can be disciplined if they're disruptive.

A teacher who objects to reciting the pledge should "do so in a way that is not intended to impose a personal agenda on students or encourage students to not participate."

Retaliation or harassment of any person based on his or her decision not to participate in recitation of the pledge "must not be tolerated."

Source: Boulder Valley School District

Senior Emma Chitters, 17, said that would keep students who don't want to hear the pledge from disrespecting it in class — repeating it in a mocking tone or ad-libbing their own version.

"People talk over it, or they have other ways to say it," Chitters said. "It would be much better to offer it during the lunch hour for people who really want to go."

The group's members — there are at least 11 — said they haven't heard back from Jenkins, and they don't know how many other people will come to the protests.

Sophomore Spencer Gale, 15, said she might go — although she doesn't have a major complaint with the pledge being aired during class. She just doesn't say it, she said, adding that most people ignore the pledge if they don't approve of it.

"Did anyone even go last year when it was in the gym?" Gale asked her friend, Jackson Prince, a sophomore.

"Like, two kids," said Prince, 16.

Assistant principal Donnelly said chances are slim that the pledge will be moved.

Martens, who's leading the student protest, said if school officials ignore their pleas, "We're going to keep on with the protests."

If officials "absolutely refuse" to consider alternatives, Martens said, the students might ask the school to remove "under God" from the pledge when it's read over the intercom.

"That would be better than nothing," Martens said. "But we are not giving up because we really care about this, and we want to have our voices heard."