The Pledge of Allegiance got a teacher suspended in Florida after she forced one of her fourth graders to recite it.
Anne Daigle-McDonald, a teacher at Explorer K-8 School in Spring Hill, Fla., forced a student to place his hand over his heart during the pledge on September 11th. The boy tried to resist as he is a Jehovah's Witness and they are forbidden from worshipping objects, even the American flag. When he wouldn't put his hand over his heart and say the pledge, the teacher said "You are an American, and you are supposed to salute the flag," the boy told an administrator, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Several students said that the teacher scolded them the following day, 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."
Officials from the Hernando County School District investigated the incident and said that the teacher "violated a number of state education rules, professional conduct principles and the student's right to free speech and freedom of religion."
As a result, Daigle-McDonald, a teacher for nine years, was suspended without pay for five days and have to attend diversity training.
"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 according to the Tampa Bay Times.
What the teacher did is against the law as a 1943 Supreme Court decision made it unconstitutional to force a child to salute the flag.
Daigle-McDonald said she wasn't trying to discriminate against the boy's religion, but she didn't want other kids to follow him. She claims she directed her statements at the entire class and not just the boy. She stood against some of her claims though.
"I was talking about pledging allegiance to our country," Daigle-McDonald told a district official. "And if you don't want to pledge to our country, you should go to your home country."
"(I) just wanted all of the students to respect the day," the teacher said referring to the 9/11 date. "It wasn't a holiday, so I didn't see why the whole class couldn't say the pledge."
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