ECD - Amazing speculation on beliefs. I totally agree.
Bssage - I hate to put down everyone saying "Good for him! Go 10 year old boy with an attitude!" but I agree with your post. I don't think any of this was neccessary. If the teacher was bothering the kid, he should have talked to his parents or to another adult about it. And it should have been taken care of long before the FIFTH freakin day rolled around, when he was still pushing the teacher's buttons. The article said that he practiced the pledge literally up until this random point. I'd like to know what happened that made him SUDDENLY not want to say it? Its not like he has always felt this way, and he has never said it. Its not like there was a spoken or written agreement between his parents and the school that he did not HAVE to say it due to his beliefs. Otherwise the teacher would know about it and wouldn't have even bothered with it.
To me it looks like, he didn't like this sub teacher. He didn't like being told what to do. He was screwing around in the morning when the pledge started and she told him to shut up and do what he was supposed to be doing (saying the pledge) and he decided to be smart alic and say no, that he didn't have to because he had the right not to (just so he didn't have to listen to her). And he obviously made a show of himself not doing it, otherwise I think the teacher wouldn't have consumed so much time trying to work on him when she had an entire classroom full of other children. And then when everyone else got involved, it turned from "a kid being mouthy, and not behaving like the rest of the class needing punished" into "a poor kid trying to exercise his constitutional right not to say the pledge of allegiance, that mean snotty old teacher trying to push him away from his religious beliefs!!!". I don't believe that for one second. MAYBE I would believe it if he had always kept from saying the pledge. But this was COMPLETELY random, on the very day when a SUBSTITUTE teacher just happened to show up (which I don't know if you guys remember school, but the sub was the one who always got the most grief from the kids because we knew it wasn't our real teacher).
Mind you, I am all for a kid sticking up for his constitutional rights. But I think he just USED the fact that the pledge IS a constitutional right so he didn't have to do it, and so that he could get a media's worth of pitty out of his mouthy little situation. But when it all comes down to it, I think we would have to have been in that classroom and in that office and at this kid's home to know exactly what went down and how it happened to have a proper opinion on it.
This kid does have the freedom of speach, and he does have consitutional rights as given, however I don't think he has the right to use them to his advantage in order to tell off a teacher he dislikes. And I think that's what it comes down to. In my personal opinion, of course. If this case had been much different, and the kid's decision wasn't random and had been agreed upon between parents and teachers and whatnot, everything worked out and known about, and he hadn't already been saying the pledge like he didn't care one bit about religion for however many years, and then this sub teacher barged in and told him he had to say it when he usually doesn't and go against all of his religious beliefs then I'd be saying "You go little boy! Tell her off!". But its just not like that, the way I see it. :/
I'd also like to add that the kid is probably being tormented in school now (ie - being called a gaywad everywhere he goes despite being the opposite), and all thanks to his mom making a big deal out of something that could have been so simple. Tell the principle you're sorry about your sons behavior, but that he does have your permission as his parent not to say the pledge due to his beliefs, and then tell your son to stop being a little brat and apologize to the teacher once she has been notified that he doesn't have to say it. A simple ending. But instead she blew it waaaay out of proportion and took it to the media, and now everyone knows about it and of course kids are going to pick on him. He's probably darn near miserable at school now. Way to go, super mom.
Bssage - I hate to put down everyone saying "Good for him! Go 10 year old boy with an attitude!" but I agree with your post. I don't think any of this was neccessary. If the teacher was bothering the kid, he should have talked to his parents or to another adult about it. And it should have been taken care of long before the FIFTH freakin day rolled around, when he was still pushing the teacher's buttons. The article said that he practiced the pledge literally up until this random point. I'd like to know what happened that made him SUDDENLY not want to say it? Its not like he has always felt this way, and he has never said it. Its not like there was a spoken or written agreement between his parents and the school that he did not HAVE to say it due to his beliefs. Otherwise the teacher would know about it and wouldn't have even bothered with it.
To me it looks like, he didn't like this sub teacher. He didn't like being told what to do. He was screwing around in the morning when the pledge started and she told him to shut up and do what he was supposed to be doing (saying the pledge) and he decided to be smart alic and say no, that he didn't have to because he had the right not to (just so he didn't have to listen to her). And he obviously made a show of himself not doing it, otherwise I think the teacher wouldn't have consumed so much time trying to work on him when she had an entire classroom full of other children. And then when everyone else got involved, it turned from "a kid being mouthy, and not behaving like the rest of the class needing punished" into "a poor kid trying to exercise his constitutional right not to say the pledge of allegiance, that mean snotty old teacher trying to push him away from his religious beliefs!!!". I don't believe that for one second. MAYBE I would believe it if he had always kept from saying the pledge. But this was COMPLETELY random, on the very day when a SUBSTITUTE teacher just happened to show up (which I don't know if you guys remember school, but the sub was the one who always got the most grief from the kids because we knew it wasn't our real teacher).
Mind you, I am all for a kid sticking up for his constitutional rights. But I think he just USED the fact that the pledge IS a constitutional right so he didn't have to do it, and so that he could get a media's worth of pitty out of his mouthy little situation. But when it all comes down to it, I think we would have to have been in that classroom and in that office and at this kid's home to know exactly what went down and how it happened to have a proper opinion on it.
This kid does have the freedom of speach, and he does have consitutional rights as given, however I don't think he has the right to use them to his advantage in order to tell off a teacher he dislikes. And I think that's what it comes down to. In my personal opinion, of course. If this case had been much different, and the kid's decision wasn't random and had been agreed upon between parents and teachers and whatnot, everything worked out and known about, and he hadn't already been saying the pledge like he didn't care one bit about religion for however many years, and then this sub teacher barged in and told him he had to say it when he usually doesn't and go against all of his religious beliefs then I'd be saying "You go little boy! Tell her off!". But its just not like that, the way I see it. :/
I'd also like to add that the kid is probably being tormented in school now (ie - being called a gaywad everywhere he goes despite being the opposite), and all thanks to his mom making a big deal out of something that could have been so simple. Tell the principle you're sorry about your sons behavior, but that he does have your permission as his parent not to say the pledge due to his beliefs, and then tell your son to stop being a little brat and apologize to the teacher once she has been notified that he doesn't have to say it. A simple ending. But instead she blew it waaaay out of proportion and took it to the media, and now everyone knows about it and of course kids are going to pick on him. He's probably darn near miserable at school now. Way to go, super mom.
