Standing for pledge not required
By Nirvi Shah
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 17, 2006
If Florida students have their parents' permission to opt out of the Pledge of Allegiance, that means they also don't have to stand during the daily school ritual, according to court papers filed by the state Department of Education this month.
Cameron Frazier sued the state Board of Education and Education Commissioner John Winn in federal court in January after he was scolded for not standing during the Pledge of Allegiance in class at Boynton Beach High School.
State law requires students to have their parents' permission not to recite the pledge, and even then, the law says they must stand while it is recited. But the state says Frazier is misreading the law, and it wants the case dismissed.
Frazier, a junior, wanted to sit during the pledge and said he has been sitting since he was a sixth-grader. He settled a lawsuit with the Palm Beach County School Board for $32,500. In addition, the school district agreed to allow students to sit during the pledge, even if they don't have their parents' permission to opt out. The district based its decision on a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it believes supersedes state law.
The state also says, however, that students should not be able to make their own decisions about whether to participate in the pledge: Parents have the fundamental right to raise their children and make that decision.
If Frazier's request is granted and students are allowed to sit during the pledge, but their parents want them to recite the pledge, that would violate parents' constitutional rights, the state argues.
Frazier's attorney, Jim Green, doesn't put much weight in the state's argument.
"What if the parent wrote the school board and said the child has to sit down, and the child wants to stand?" Green asked. "Would the school force the child to sit down?"
Standing for pledge not required
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