Florida Teacher Suspended For Making Jehovah’s Witness Take Pledge

According to media reports Wednesday, Anne Daigle-McDonald was suspended for five days by the Hernando County School District in Spring Hill, Fla. after she allegedly forced a fourth grade student to violate his religious beliefs by making him take part in the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to FOX News:

The student, who is a Jehovah’s Witness and prohibited by the religion from worshiping objects, refused on religious grounds, the investigation found.

Hernando County teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald twice placed the student’s hand over his heart when the class recited the pledge, reports the Sun Times. The paper reports the boy told his teacher about his religion.

The district says that McDonald violated a host of state education rules, professional conduct principles and the student’s right to free speech and freedom of religion.

“You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag,” Daigle-McDonald is quoted as saying. “In my classroom, everyone will do the pledge. No religion says that you can’t do the pledge. If you can’t put your hand on your heart, then you need to move out of the country.”

“But that’s not what I said,” Daigle-McDonald told the Tampa Bay Times. “It was directed at citizenship. I was talking about pledging allegiance to our country, and if you don’t want to pledge to our country, you should go to your home country.”

On Oct. 7, superintendent Lori Romano suspended the teacher for five days without pay.

“Regardless of the circumstances that may have brought them about, such inappropriate actions on your part do not reflect positively on your position,” Hernando County School Superintendent Lori Romano wrote in a letter to the instructor.

As Opposing Views points out, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1943 that students could not be forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in a school. Ironically, that case was won by the Jehovah’s Witnesses over the West Viginia Board of Education.

According to Yahoo News, It’s not the first time the Pledge of Allegiance has been at the center of a controversy in Hernando County.

Last year, a high school student was suspended for three days for confronting a classmate wearing a traditional Muslim headscarf who she said did not stand for the pledge.

“Take that thing off your head and act like you’re proud to be an American,” the girl said, according to a teacher who witnessed the confrontation.

The suspended student later admitted she made up the story to justify the exchange, and that the Muslim classmate stood during the pledge.

On The Web:

Teacher suspended for requiring student to recite Pledge of Allegiance
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/06/teacher-suspended-for-requiring-student-to-recite-pledge-allegiance/

Teacher Suspended For Forcing Child Into Pledge Of Allegiance (Video)
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/religion-society/teacher-suspended-forcing-child-pledge-allegiance-video#

Fla. teacher suspended for forcing 4th-grader to participate in Pledge of Allegiance
http://news.yahoo.com/teacher-pledge-of-allegiance-us-160820504.html