The Madison Metropolitan School District Board will reconsider its recent decision to mandate the playing of the National Anthem in school classrooms in an Oct. 15 meeting, after the district drew national attention for what some interpreted as a move to ban the Pledge of Allegiance.
Schools must offer students the choice to participate in either the anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance in accordance with state statute 118.06, but they cannot require students to take part in the activity, said school board member Ruth Robarts.
To comply with the new law, the school board passed a 3-2 motion Monday to air the National Anthem over the public address system every day, or to play it in the classroom if no public address system exists, according to school board member Bill Keys.
'I made the motion that complied with the law in what I thought was the least offensive way,' Keys said, but added that the school board received dozens of complaints about the motion Tuesday.
According to Keys, the people he talked to objected to the recitation of the anthem on grounds that 'the words are militaristic, they speak of a battle.'
Madison School Board members Keys, Carol Carstensen and Robarts all expressed concerns about defending those students who choose not to participate in either the pledge or anthem.
Robarts said she agreed with Keys in a broad sense, but she disagreed with the proposal.
'We have the same concerns [about] protecting dissidents,' she said. '[But] I don't think his proposal does that.'
Robarts said she thought she voted on a motion to play the anthem, without its words, every day. She went on to say peer pressure may force many students to take part in the activities despite their objections.
'The motion doesn't say anything about the Pledge of Allegiance,' she said. 'The right to not participate is a meaningless right.'
Many board members clarified that they did not vote against reciting the pledge.
'We did not ban the Pledge of Allegiance,' Carstensen said, adding that individual teachers can still lead the pledge.
Keys disagreed with Carstensen's interpretation of the measure.
'That Carol Carstensen said that clearly indicates that she misunderstood the motion'it did not allow that as an option,' Keys said. 'The motion clearly stated that the law was going to be observed through [playing] the Star Spangled Banner.'
Madison Schools Superintendent Art Rainwater said it is still legal for students to recite the pledge, and until the meeting next Monday, schools will continue to have the option of using either the pledge or the anthem as they see fit.
'We didn't take away anyone's right to say the pledge,' Keys said. 'We just took away the right to have it officially sanctioned in the school environment.'
Robarts said due to board bylaws, only majority vote winners Keys, Carstensen and Calvin Williams can move to reconsider the motion next week.
'Either they'll move to reconsider or they won't, and we'll be stuck with it,' she said. 'What I wanted to do is to allow parents to tell us [what] they want.'
Keys said he thought public pressure is forcing the board to reconsider the issue and that board members understood their positions last night.
'In the course of the day, they changed their position,' he said. 'This is a living example of coercion.'
