At 2:30 a.m. Tuesday the Madison Metropolitan School District Board put to rest the issue that had brought it national attention with a 6-1 vote requiring schools to offer either the Pledge of Allegiance or the national anthem at some time during the school day.
Student participation in the pledge is optional and the teacher must preface the patriotic activity with this statement: 'We live in a nation of freedom. Participation in the pledge (or anthem) is voluntary. Whoever wishes to participate may stand, those who do not may sit.'
More than 1,000 people attended Monday night's marathon meeting, after the board voted 3-2 at its Oct. 8 meeting to have schools play an instrumental version of the national anthem rather than say the Pledge of Allegiance. The vote was widely interpreted as a ban on the pledge.
Board member Carol Carstensen, who co-authored the teachers' statement, was pleased with the outcome of the meeting.
'I felt that the core issue is to ensure that kids do not feel compelled to do something against their beliefs,' Carstensen said. 'We did ask that the Superintendent Art Rainwater report back to us about what steps the school are taking to ensure that no one is made to feel harassed or ostracized.'
Bill Keys was the only member who opposed the new proposal.
'I feel this is a return to things as they were. I don't feel it has the safeguards that could protect kids from being singled out,' Keys said. 'I'm not against the pledge or the national anthem'my primary interest is protecting kids and making them feel welcome in the schools regardless of belief.'
County Sup. Larry Olson, District 12, is also critical of the new proposal. He said he favors a recall of all five board members present at the Oct. 8 meeting.
'They should have stayed out of it in the first place. It's the same proposal they had before,' Olson said.
Most of the board members said they think that while the new proposal is a compromise, it was a necessary one.
'As the whole issue erupted we became concerned with the fact that we were devoting too much time to this issue to the neglect of others,' Carstensen said. 'It was a no-win situation.'
Board member Shwaw Vang, who voted against the original proposal, felt that this one, while not perfect, better reflects the board's intent.
'Right now I am satisfied with the motion that passed,' Vang said. 'I would have liked it if we could have offered the students and teachers who want to say the pledge and sing the anthem a private room to go to.'
At the meeting, Keys proposed that instead of every classroom reciting the pledge, a room should be set aside where students who want to say the pledge or sing the anthem could go. The board voted 5-2 against this proposal.
'It is like church. You go to the church, the church doesn't come to you,' Keys said. 'Giving the students the option to stand or not is like a litmus test. If you sit you are singled out as different.'
