Florida Teacher Suspended For Forcing 4th-Grade Jehovah’s Witness To Recite Pledge Of Allegiance

November 6, 2013 | Filed under: News Behaving Badly,Top Stories | Posted by: Cheston Catalano

One fourth-grader stood in silence as the rest of the class recited the Pledge at Explorer K-8 school in Spring Hill, FL.

A Jehovah’s Witness forbidden from worshiping objects, the boy’s behavior was not unusual. He had never joined his peers in the ritual of placing his right hand on his heart. He had never spoken the words: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands . . .”

But that morning was different.

As the students recited, teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald took the boy’s wrist and placed his hand over his heart. He protested, pulling his arm down and reminding her he was a Jehovah’s Witness.

“You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag,” Daigle-McDonald said, according to a statement the boy gave to a school administrator.

The teacher did the same thing the next day, and then addressed the class:

“In my classroom, everyone will do the pledge; no religion says that you can’t do the pledge,” several students told a school administrator, according to a report. “If you can’t put your hand on your heart, then you need to move out of the country.”

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