Pledge of Allegiance still a thorny issue at Woodbury school
Toolbox
By David Delcore Staff Writer - Published: November 9, 2008
WOODBURY – The Pledge of Allegiance is controversial in this small town: Reciting the traditional school day opener is not a universal rite of passage for students at Woodbury Elementary School.
School officials have repeatedly sought, without success, to satisfy parents and others who want the pledge to be part of the daily routine.
Although the school board's latest attempt to address the issue enables students to recite the pledge daily, children are only allowed to do so as part of a voluntary group in the school's gymnasium.
Ted Tedesco, the parent responsible for forcing the issue in September, said the solution unanimously approved by the board wasn't what the 300-plus taxpayers who signed his petition had in mind.
Retta Dunlap, chairwoman of the Woodbury School Board, said school directors can't be blamed for that.
"We felt we met the language of the petition," Dunlap said.
According to Dunlap, a sixth-grader has been assigned to round up willing students each day and escort them to the third-floor gymnasium where, under the supervision of a staff member, they can recite the pledge before returning to their respective classrooms. The board allocated five minutes of "free time" – starting at 7:55 a.m. – to accommodate the daily exercise.
"This leaves it up to the parents, or the children whether they do it (recite the pledge) or not," she said. "It's been really difficult to get it to this place."
Dunlap said the board quickly determined that a previous administrative proposal to recite the pledge on a weekly basis – as had been the case before the tradition was completely scrapped last year – was politically untenable.
With Tedesco circulating a petition signed by roughly half of the registered voters in this northern Washington County town, Dunlap said the board pushed Principal Michaela Martin to come back with a plan to reinstate recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance on a daily basis.
Dunlap said the board took that position over the objection of some, who urged them to abandon the pledge altogether and others who said they were fine with Martin's initial plan to make it part of the school's "morning meetings" every Wednesday.
"We've heard from all sides," she said.
At least one of them still isn't satisfied.
Tedesco said the board's decision didn't come close to responding to the concerns of those who signed it.
"I think she is parsing words and I don't think it passes the smell test," he said.
Tedesco said he doesn't understand the school's resistance to reciting the pledge in the classroom, and he is dismayed that it took the board more than two months and four meetings to endorse an unsatisfactory response to his position. Schools around the state and in the area, including Woodbury students' secondary school destination Hazen Union School, all incorporate the pledge into students' daily routine.
"There is an extraordinary effort being made here that is completely untraditional and unnecessary and no one has been willing to say why," he said
Tedesco said he is troubled by the cumbersome and time-consuming process of rounding up students, and he worries that it will discourage participation.
"This literally is student free time … students are going to have to make a decision between playing with Pokemon cards and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance," he said. "Without the leadership and guidance of the teaching staff they (students) may take the course of most fun."
Tedesco said he respects the constitutional protection afforded students who choose not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but said neither they, nor their parents, should stand in the way of those who do.
"We can't have what amounts to a 'heckler's veto,'" he said. "That's just not right."
Although Tedesco said he is withdrawing his two children from Woodbury Elementary School starting Monday, he said that decision was not driven by the board's response to his concerns about the Pledge of Allegiance. Instead, he said, it was based on academic concerns involving the school's failure to make adequate yearly progress earlier this year.
Tedesco, who moved to Woodbury after retiring from the military in 1999, said he will continue to press the board on behalf of those who signed his petition.
"I'm not going to just go away on this issue," he said. "The taxpayers deserve better."
Despite Tedesco's concerns, Dunlap said the board believes it has resolved the issue and will move on to more pressing matters, like crafting a budget for a school with four teachers, six grades and fewer than 60 students.
However, she said, the board will monitor the new practice and make adjustments if it doesn't appear to be working.
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