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By Michael Bielawski
The Southwest Vermont Union Elementary School District Board (SVUESD) voted shortly before Christmas to have the Pledge of Allegiance recited every day inside the school building.
“The SVUESD board of directors directs the pledge of allegiance is to be recited on each school day inside the building before instructional time starts,” the motion stated after a 5-1 vote.
The vote occurred at their Dec. 17 meeting. Vermont is one of only three states that don’t require the saying of the pledge, Iowa and Wyoming are the other two. Also of note, Dec. 28 was National Pledge of Allegiance Day.
VDC reported in October on the various communities that comprise this district. The SVUESD includes Mt. Anthony Union High School in Bennington as well as schools in Pownal, Arlington, Shaftsbury, and Sandgate.
Vermonters frustrated
Earlier in the fall of 2024, the district was widely reported on social media to be banning the pledge. News 10 out of Albany, NY, initially reported that parents were saying their children attending Shaftsbury Elementary School would no longer be allowed to say the pledge.
Former Vermont GOP Chair Brady Toensign took to X to share his frustration. He wrote in October, “Straight from the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up files #vtpoli: Vermont School officials worry that saying the Pledge of Allegiance will harm students and are working to create a more ‘inclusive’ version.”
In response to social media backlash, SVUESD Superintendent James R. Culkeen issued a statement clarifying that the pledge was not banned and said the SVUESD would work to develop a “consistent practice” for its recital.
She wrote, “On its face, the ”opt-out” choice seems reasonable. But as we’ve learned, when students do so, it highlights differences between our kids. It disrupts the community and excludes kids who just want to be a part of their classrooms. Classroom teachers, building Principals, and school staff should not be leading activities during instructional time that make our kids feel separate from their classmates, no matter how well-intentioned the activities may be.”
Another commenter also on X suggested that saying the pledge should be required.
User @802direct wrote, “There’s no reason to display a cross in a public school. It wasn’t displayed in any public school that I attended in Vermont. However, we did recite the pledge of allegiance every day before school followed by song in grade school. That should be mandatory in honor of our country.”The Bennington Banner reported in November that there was consideration to have the pledge said by all participating students say it together at a single location in each school, giving those who don’t wish to say it the option to stay in their classrooms. The idea was turned down over logistical challenges.
Patriotism waning?
The America First Policy Institute suggests that states should generally require the pledge, and they suggest that there could be an opt-out form for individual students’ parents to sign if they wish not to participate.
Their report notes some concerning stats regarding American patriotism.
“A 2021 poll from Ipsos revealed that while 69 percent of those polled said they were proud to be American, this figure was bolstered by baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), with 84 percent responding affirmatively,” the report states. “Among millennials (1981 to 1996), only about half—52 percent—said they were proud to be American.”
Started after the Civil War
The Pledge of Allegiance was originally started back during the nation’s deadliest conflict on American soil, the Civil War. News Center 1 TV based in South Dakota reported on Dec. 28, “The Pledge of Allegiance has undergone several changes since its inception in 1892. Originally penned by Captain George Thatcher Balch during the Civil War, it did not include the phrase ‘under God.’ That addition came in 1954 during the Cold War era.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Education, Local government
I’ve got no beef with the Pledge, but it’s pretty Commie to require that a loyalty oath be recited every morning by the youth. Same goes for the anthem before sports games. Do we really need to thank our forefathers for Pats-Jets?
A progressive lib calling our great nation’s pledge and anthem recitation communist? Now that’s a new one…………not.
I’m not a lib, just not in a cult and instead of name calling Bob, tell me how I’m wrong. (you can’t) The pledge is how they start the day in China and North Korea. Not that you’d have a problem calling Trump dear leader…
Did you ever actually listen to the words and really think about what happens to a nation when the citizenry has no loyalty? Ever read history? Guessing not since you already skipped right over to NFL policy…
Asking three questions isn’t an answer John. Guess no one understands why we need to take a mandatory loyalty oath in the land of the free
I started school in 1946 and continued on to graduation from High School in 1958. The pedge of allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer were recited each and every day, by everyone in the building, teachers and all. It was a different time and thinking produced a much different response to things particularly in ’46 when the War had been front and center until a year earlier.
Cultures all across the globe change, as they sadly have here in VT and most corners of the USA. Oh, I failed to be specific. All of my schooling was in the public schools, which by today’s standards of behavior and consequences would probably be very near the private school standards now. I do not regret one minute of it, at all.
Maybe there is still hope for Vermont, after all.
The best news I ve heard.in awhile
.
This should happen in every school, you either love the country or you don’t !!
It’s unconstitutional to require every person in the building to recite the pledge. That’s not news. It’s fine to have every classroom participate – it’s *not* fine to force everyone to recite it. That would be un-American as well as unconstitutional, and more aligned with a totalitarian autocracy than a democratic republic.
Except for people trying to score political points and gin up controversy where there is none, this has actually been done uncontroversially in most school districts in Vermont and the country for decades by simply reciting the pledge every morning without requiring every child to participate.
Just don’t have the current vice president lead the pledge…she confuses ir with the commie manifesto.
I thought forcing an individual or group to support certain expression, the act of compelled speech, was frowned upon in this our land of the free.
I wonder how many classrooms will go on to learn about our first amendment after having to stand for the pledge???