RSSPeople’s Republic of Vermont: Pledge of Allegiance Controversy in Woodbury Elementary School in Vermont
When was the last time that Vermont ever sided with that which is actually patriotic and traditional?
Once again welcome to the People’s Socialist Republic of Vermont formerly known as the Green Mountain State has an issue when it comes to honoring America. What is the gripe this time? It appears there is a controversy at the Woodbury Elementary School over the daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance. Once again the state of Vermont has forgotten that they are actually part of the United States of America.
But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this tiny town, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms amid concerns that it holds nonparticipating children up to scorn.
Supporters say the classroom is the place for it, and the disagreement has fueled an increasingly acrimonious debate among the town’s 810 residents.
“The whole thing is tearing our community apart,” said Heather Lanphear, 39, the mother of a first-grade student.
Unlike other Pledge controversies, this one centers on how and where schoolchildren say it, not whether they should be allowed to.
The controversy began when Ted Tedesco, 55, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Major, began circulating petitions calling for its return as a daily practice of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge was allowed; however, it could not be done in the classroom but instead were marched out of the classroom and to the auditorium. The touchy-feely principal and school board defended these actions as they did not want those not saying the pledge to feel bad.
“We don’t want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they’re different,” Principal Michaela Martin said.
Martin and School Board Chairwoman Retta Dunlap defended the practice, saying it restored the Pledge to the school as requested, preserved the rights of students who — for political or religious reasons — didn’t want to participate and gave others the opportunity to pledge their allegiance.
Political and religious reasons? If a child has an issue with saying the words “under God”, heaven forbid then all they have to do is not say those words while taking the pledge. However, maybe the principal, school board and someone can explain “political” reasons. A child lives in America, is allowed the rights and services of living in America and is being provided an education in America and cannot Pledge of Allegiance to America? Exactly what country do they want to pledge allegiance to?
Maybe in the People’s Republic of Vermont they would more allow the song below to be played and recited by school children every morning? Some hoe I doubt whether the liberal educators would object.
Coming soon to Vermont class rooms …Vermont educators will soon be playing this video before class every morning
Posted November 17, 2008 by Scared Monkeys Child Welfare, Education, Moonbats, Politics, Religion, WTF, You Tube - VIDEO | 21 comments |
If you liked this post, you may also like these:
Comments
21 Responses to “People’s Republic of Vermont: Pledge of Allegiance Controversy in Woodbury Elementary School in Vermont”
Leave a Reply
Well boo hoo….Heaven forbid someone doesn’t want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America…..WTF? I’m really getting sick of all this Anti-American crap. Here’s a thought…..LEAVE if you don’t like it….
So now we are supposed to stop saying it because some people don’t like it? TOUGH Get over it….It’s our pledge of allegiance and we need to keep it as is….
Of course how can you expect others to be respectful of the flag and the Pledge of Allegiance when our own President doesn’t.
I’m getting tired of giving in to every crybaby that doesn’t like something.
PLEASE people, grow up!!!!!!
so who lives in vermont ? a bunch of illegals ? these people will be worshiping barry obama before it’s all over with.
“correction” they are already worshipping obama as a god.he is their false idol.
Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.
Obama’s advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton’s foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem.
Change you can believe in… number 32 of the former Clinton administration… I remember when he ran against Hillary and said..she was the old Washington.. We knew there would be something in it for Hillary.. or she wouldn’t have campaigned against someone she said had no experience and questioned his connections..
the People’s Socialist Republic of Vermont formerly known as the Green Mountain State
LMAO!!!!!!!! hahahah Red, 2 funny!
Maggie-not a HRC fan I take it? To be honest, I think she will do well in that position. She earned it.(in more ways than one) I’m sorry…I have always respected and admired her. Period. If she had made it past THE CHOSEN ONE, it would have been a tougher decision for me this year in the booth as I definetly didn’t want to vote Dem or 4 Obama (at all) -but just really like HRC. Always have and so much of what has been put out there about her is wrong. McCain to me was the best overall choice for ’08, HANDS DOWN!!!..I supported him 100%. Love Palin, too but anyways…I digress
When SM posted that video clip of HRC befuddled by the coffee machine though—LOLOLOLOL goes to show you what years of living with wealth/hired help can do to a busy career politican (woman), I guess. God, that was too funny. I honestly could not believe that HRC could not figure that out!!! Wellesley Grad,extremely intelligent, strong, tough…but could not figure out the coffee machine? Are you serious? Damn
Off topic——-
The Pledge of Allegiance was written by, and pushed into public schools, under a Christian Socialist political agenda. By today’s standards the Christian Socialist party is far to the left of our Democrat party.
On topic——–
students should be required recite the pledge in the original “1942″ form (Basically without the “under god” line).
When the “Under God” was added in 1954 (lobbied for by the Catholic church through the Knights of Columbus) it was done in the interest of the promotion of religeon, and motivated by a desire to tie patriotism with Christianity. Therefore, I would tend to agree with the complaints about the 1954 pledge.
Requiring a pledge to a Diety is an obvious violation of the first ammendment rights. You should not pick & Choose your bill of rights. If you want me to defend the second ammendment, you must also respect the first.
The 1942 pledge meets the patriotic agenda without the objections. It should be required of all public school children, government workers and prisoners.
howobamagotelected.com
#7
I’ve seen that and I must say that I really didn’t want to believe that many people are so ignorant but it’s true. They have no idea what or who they have voted for.
Sorry, I know this is off topic.
New Girl..I am not a Hillary fan, but I think she has been treated just like Sarah by the media.. horrible.. Chris Matthews never misses a chance to slam her.. I used to not mind watching him until this year..and he went way off the end.. Chris was slamming them last night. When they were in office I remember the media praising them no matter what they did, but heard behind the scenes it wasn’t so pleasant, what they were saying. He also had Congressman Meeks on praising him…remember him on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hearings yelling at the regulator after it was found the companies cooked the books. I saw the video of Obama giving Hillary the finger and trashing her…and vice versa.. I have little faith in the govt. right now.. Like I said all these people were in dc…long before Sept. and who was looking out for us?
When I taught high school (not in Vermont) years ago, here is how the pledge situation was handled:
Everyone in my homeroom stayed in the classroom. I led the recitation of the pledge. Each student could say it or not say it.
That was their choice.
Either choice was respected and it didn’t amount to a big deal or big problem.
Dick Cheney indicted..
McALLEN, Texas — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers.
The indictment criticizes Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees by working through the prison companies.
Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.
Another indictment charges state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. with profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies.
The indictments were first reported by KRGV-TV.
#9-Maggie—you are right again …who looks out for us? Not as many in power WHO SHOULD of course.
MSM was undoubtedly much harder on the females in the election this year—and Obama’s campaign staffers were BRUTAL. To witness this reprehensible treatment in the 21st Century…come on! Really unfair and I would also use the word digusting.
Back on Topic: IMO, Pledge of Allegance—DOES NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE CHANGED, ever. What is the beef here? Get over it I say to those who whine, complain, protest or make a controversy over something so simple which should remain in place….untouched . Preservation of American history and allegiance/unity/American Pride—–soon to be just another casualty of the past? Sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.”
The pledge of allegiance is just a pledge, of allegiance … to our country … nothing less, nothing more.
When children refuse to say the pledge, they are usually acting upon what they have heard their parents say. When adults refuse to say the pledge, it makes me wonder where their allegiance lies.
If it is the word GOD that has those pesky Vermont people in a twist then they should just look at it as “God” as THEY understand it. There,Done but for GOD SAKE SAY IT!!Or leave.You do have a choice.
GOD….G=Good…O=Orderly…D=Direction
Now what is wrong with that??
I am a parent of a 1st grader at Woodbury School. The pledge is NOT banned from the classroom! The way our students say the pledge right now is a wonderful sight to behold.
At 7:55 AM 95% of the 50+ students (k-6) join together as a community. A sixth grader is honored by reading the day’s announcements to the assembled group and then leads the entire school in saying the Pledge. I counted only 7 children on Monday that did not partake in saying the pledge, some of those kids are Jehovahs and some are abstaining, this is as it should be in our great nation.
For the last ten years, our school only said the pledge once a week, at the school-wide assembly on Wednesdays. Late last school year, the pledge was accidentally left out of that meeting, no one can say exactly when, but it was NOT intentional.
At the start of this year, one parent wanted to make sure it was not forgotten, but he did not follow established procedure. He had a brief phone call with the principal and she made sure it was again said at the weekly meeting. But this one parent decided he was not satisfied, so instead of going through the proper channels, he jumped right to writing a petition calling for the pledge to be said 5 days a week.
Out of 600+ registered voters in our tiny town, and 800+ total residents he collected 310 signatures, a respectable amount. After he submitted his petition to the school, the staff and the board decided to honor his request.
At first, they extended the existing procedure, to assemble all the students in the Auditorium/Cafeteria on the top floor, just like they do for the Wednesday meeting. After a week of this it was realized that this was impractical and the school staff changed the procedure to assemble the students just outside their classrooms in the foyer. The staff’s primary thought was to keep the students together as a whole community, NOT to ‘ban them from the classroom’!
At least 20 of the other parents that I have talked to that DID sign the petition are satisfied with this communal recitation led by an older student. It recalls to use our old one-room school houses where the older students helped teach the young ones. The sixth grader’s, incidentally, also have a ceremony to take down the exterior flag at the end of the school day and they properly carry the flag into their classroom to fold it correctly.
This is all as it should be.
But this one parent that started the petition refuses to stop, even though he told me directly that he personally would be happy with only one day a week! He is still out there, trying to split our students and teachers and parents apart.
Last Friday (Nov 14) he led an angry group of Woodbury residents (only ONE had a student at the school) inside the school and they started shouting about how the students gathering together and being led by a sixth grader was a ‘disgrace’ and how the principal was disrespecting the pledge! When they were asked to leave for being disruptive, they initially refused. Only after the principal insisted did they go outside. They stayed right outside the front door and harassed the School Board chair for 45 minutes! And the school board chair is a Christian home-school advocate that supports saying the pledge!
Students inside the school actually asked their teachers if they and the principal were safe from the angry mob right outside their window! The school staff and students are TERRIFIED of this man now.
On Monday, Nov. 17, Fox News ran a story full of lies claiming that we have ‘banned the pledge’ and ‘banned God’ from our classrooms. They KNOW it’s false, as one of the parents quoted in the AP article last Friday very clearly informed the Fox producer who called her exactly what is the real situation here.
Just this morning (Nov. 18) Fox had a segment on our school and had the petitioner and one of the signers on live, nationwide. Yet the host wouldn’t let the other guy get his point across, which is this: He signed the petition asking for the pledge to be said 5 days a week, and now it is and he’s happy with it. The Fox host (I think it was Doocey) interrupted him and wouldn’t let him finish his thought!
Starting last Friday, our school and some parents and school board members have been getting phone calls from crazy people all over America calling us Communists, saying we should all be rounded up and deported. Our school secretary has been cussed out over the phone several times a day from her fellow Conservatives screaming at her, calling her names and such. That has got to stop!
This is a NON ISSUE, folks! There is NO policy to prevent students from saying the pledge inside the classrooms! We, The People, WANT our kids saying it together as a group.
UPDATE: Last night our school board met and we had an hour and a half long discussion about the pledge. The after hearing from the 15 townsfolk that attended the meeting, the board decided to keep the pledge said the way it is now: as a communal event that re-enforces the solidarity that we are all Americans and we all pledge our allegiance to this great nation.
Robin Grant -
There you go wrecking self-rightous outrage with boring old facts. Nice.
We said the pledge every morning when I was in school..There were a few due to religious beliefs who didn’t.. They never attended school on party days either.. and didn’t celebrate Christmas in the way many do..was against their religion. I didn’t have a problem with their beliefs..so I don’t think they should have a problem with us. If they want to say the pledge, they should be allowed.If they don’t, that should be allowed too.. They already took Halloween parties (devil worshippers ya know) and Christmas parties out of school and call them fall and winter parties now. I still hang up Merry Christmas in my yard and Happy Halloween..with lots of decorations..
Robin #16:
Why let facts get in the way of a good story – Paranoid rantings and irrational fits of anger is more appropriate apparently.
What Robin does not tell you is that at the last School Board meeting the District School Superintendent, Mark Andrews, recommended that the Pledge be returned to the classroom.
The Principal refused. That is where it is in the other schools within his district to include the school to which the Woodbury children will be going to after 6th grade. Robin and his wife are vocal opponets of reciting the Pledge anytime and anywhere. We locals are getting more than a little tired of their lies. Besides Robin and his wife Stef opposing the recitation of the Pledge there is also a teacher who opposes it named David. I spoke to the AP reporter who was there on Friday and there was NO angry mob. In fact one of the parents speaking to the School Board Chair is a Federal law enforcement officer. It was the School Board Chair who wanted to speak to the parents and taxpayers. She is a politician you know. So much for that lie, hey Robin.
How about the students who don’t want to recite the pledge be allowed to leave the room?