Massachusetts School Outlaws Pledge Of Allegiance

Click to read full story from Fox News

When Sean Harrington entered his freshman year at Arlington High School, he noticed something peculiar: There were no American flags in the classrooms, and no one recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

So Harrington enlisted the aid of his fellow students, and now, three years later, they have succeeded in getting flags installed in the classrooms. But the pledge still will not be recited.

The Arlington, Mass., school committee has rejected the 17-year-old's request to allow students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because some educators are concerned that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite it, according to a report in the Arlington Patch.

Harrington had presented school officials with a petition signed by 700 people, along with letters of support from lawmakers including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

But the request to have the pledge recited failed when the committee's vote ended in a 3-3 tie.

"I was really heartbroken," Harrington told FOX News Radio. "It's hard to think that something so traditional in American society was turned down."

His fight has received quite a bit of support from the community. "When I was going to school, it was an honor and a privilege to pledge allegiance to the flag," Francis De Guglielmo, 55, told the Patch. He called the ban an "absolute travesty" and a "disgrace."

Harrington, who will be a senior in the fall, said he will continue to fight. "I'm not a person who quits and I don't back down. It's a very righteous cause and needs to be followed through until the end."

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JMC Ministries Response

Written By Miranda Caverley

YES, it is a travesty and a disgrace that in America we cannot say the Pledge of Allegiance in this school! We are in AMERICA! We are thankful that at least the American flags were put back into the classrooms, which should NEVER have been taken out in the first place. What kind of Country have we become when schools don't even allow anything that symbolizes our Country that we live in to be in the classroom. Where children are suppose to be taught about our Country and the history of The United States Of America.

Sadly the more stories like this that keep coming to light the more we see that the United States of America is becoming a Socialist, Marxist Run Country and no longer a Democracy.

I applaud this young man for continuing to fight to have the Pledge of Allegiance placed back into the classrooms of his school. When I was a child we said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning before class started. But once I got out of elementary school we no longer said it, and I still don't know why. But at least I had the chance to learn the pledge of allegiance and I am happy that I know and proud to stand and say it. Because sadly most children in that school more than likely haven't been taught it and don't even know it. This must stop teach the children the truth so that when they grow up they will be educated and know their rights and know How their country became the greatest freest nation on earth.