"No one's sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside at Woodbury Elementary School.
But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this tiny (pop. 810) Vermont town, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms amid concerns that it holds nonparticipating children up to scorn.
The brouhaha in the Vermont school began in September, when parent Ted Tedesco began circulating petitions calling for its return as a daily practice in the 19th-century schoolhouse, which has 55 children in grades kindergarten through six.
School officials agreed to resume the pledge as a daily exercise, but not in the classroom.
"We don't want to isolate children every day in their own classroom, or make them feel they're different," said Principal Michaela Martin.
Instead, starting last week, a sixth grade student was assigned to go around to the four classrooms before classes started, gathering up anyone who wanted to say it and then walking them up creaky wooden steps to a second-floor gymnasium, where he led them in the pledge."
No seriously. WTF???? Non participating children???? They can't pledge allegiance to the flag that represents this country we live in? They can't pledge allegiance to one one nation, indivisible, with liberty and JUSTICE FOR ALL???? For Pete's sake...what's next? Are they gonna get rid of Christmas?
