Posted on 02/27/2013 1:35:57 PM PST by Nachum
A Texas high school student has filed a federal lawsuit against her school and her teachers after she was punished for refusing to salute and recite the Mexican pledge of allegiance.
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The Thomas More Law Center filed the suit on behalf of Brenda Brinsdon alleging the McAllen Independent School District violated the 15-year-old girl’s constitutional rights when she was forced to recite the Mexican pledge and sing the Mexican national anthem.
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.foxnews.com ...
My children are grown. I have 1 grandson and he is not being brought up that way, although he lives in Northern VA. He has been in private school until just recently.
“The recitation of the Mexican pledge and the singing of the Mexican national anthem was part of a 2011 Spanish class assignment at Achieve Early College High School. The teacher, Reyna Santos, required all her students to participate in the lesson.”
This sheds a bit of light on the situation. I’m slightly relieved to know it’s not an everyday, school-wide function. But only slightly. Requiring to kids to recite/sing the pledge/anthem of another sovereign nation is a *lousy* class exercise for a foreign language class. And the so-called “alternative assignment” was BS too. What does the independence of Mexico have to do with learning to speak Spanish (which the girl already does, and fluently)?
The McAllen Independent School District Members probably ought to be be Tared & Feathered then road out of town on a rail.
The McAllen Independent School District Members probably ought to be be Tared & Feathered, then road out of town on a fresh split wood rail.
Not all private schools are immune to this crap. Hopefully the parents did their homework
Exactly!
They should have forced her to recite the SPANISH pledge of allegiance.
I have no problem with it. We did it in both my French and Spanish classes when I was in high school in the 70s. Of course the anthem was of Spain not Mexico. And as far as I know, they most likely still do it, as the foreign language requirements for that HS haven't changed in all these years.
Back then I took French. One class assignment was to translate La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
That was in 1972! I briefly had an idea to through down an imaginary French rifle while reciting it, but Madame LeBoeuf would have had my head! She was much more Teutonic than Gallic!
Now they just use Google translate and worry about fixing the errors it leaves
Is it only prayer or can students in public schools refuse to say Pledge of Allegiance to America ...or stand when Pledge is being recited.......perhaps I’m wrong but thought I heard this reported. But, refusing to cite a pledge to a foreign county is worth a punishment?!
Good for Thomas More organization...enough is enough. This IS AMERICA and the Pledge of Allegiance to AMERICA IS THE ONLY PLEDGE that should be said in US schools, Courts, Official Bldgs, etc!! Does any other country ask their citizens to Pledge Allegiance to America??? Enough!
They cannot make a student recite the US pledge, school district policy but PUNISHES a kid for failing to pledge it to a foreign country.
Insane.
yes, insane. The parents at that school, and any other school that pulls the same garbage, should protest big time!
Interesting - thank you for the input! I guess my own experience in foreign language class was a bit different than most. The only song I can ever remember singing in French class was “Alouette.”
I guess what bugs me about the incident in the story is that it feels like the instructor in question may have an agenda other than education in her lesson plan. An alternate assignment of reporting on the independence of Mexico seems awfully political to me. Especially since there are so many other Latin American countries where Spanish is the predominant language.
Just MHO, of course. I’ve been wrong before, and probably will be again in the very near future. :-)
maybe annually?
I agree with you on the alternate assignment it should have been an alternative Spanish speaking country. That does make the issue political in my book.
Gaijin, That sounds exactly like an essay by Wendy Shalit that my son just read for college and wrote about: “A Ladies’ Room of One’s Own.”
Written in 1995 about just what you experienced - “I’m XXX and I’m gay/Latina/Whatever” - but from the point of view of a young conservative woman in a very liberal, ultra-PC college. It’s excellent.
The entire essay is here - it’s in TXT file - sorry about that, but it’s the only full version I could find.
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200791.txt
This is what happens when parents are not involved
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