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ACLU Backs Montgomery County Student Who Refuses to Say Pledge of Allegiance
NBC 4 DC ^ | 4/25/2013 | Erika Gonzalez

Posted on 04/26/2013 4:29:41 AM PDT by markomalley

She's an honor roll student and accomplished violinist.

She also refuses to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Enidris Siurano, a student at Damascus High School, was born in Puerto Rico. Siurano says she hasn't recited the pledge since seventh grade to protest the political situation there.

"The government that's there should be the one that's running it, not one that's miles and miles away," she said.

But only recently has her refusal caused so much turmoil that she and her family turned to the ACLU of Maryland.

"Enidris was repeatedly directed by her teacher to stand," said an ACLU attorney.

In a letter to the superintendent, the ACLU said that Siurano is being harassed, that she was called out of class and told to report to the assistant principal's office.

"She told me that I was disrespecting the military and military families and students who had family in the military," Siurano said.

In a statement, Montgomery County Schools said they're looking into the situation, and that students can't be compelled to participate in patriotic activities. If they are, or if they're punished for not complying, that's not in compliance with MCPS rules.

Siurano said she does not mean to disrespect anyone or her country -- and she feels she is honoring the freedoms of her country with her protest.

"It's not biting the hand that feeds you because the hand that feeds you allows you to do that," Siurano said, "and they can't stop me from doing that."

The ACLU of Maryland says this is not the first time a case of alleged harassment has happened within Montgomery County Public Schools over not reciting the pledge.

The group is requesting a meeting with school officials and an apology to be made to Siurano and her family.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: aclu; immigrants; ingrates; pledgeofallegiance
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To: knarf

Some of the many people I’ve discussed this with in the recent past include teachers, educational admistrators, a legislator who was perturbed enough to listen and take it to heart, and an assortment of people in business and the military who though surprised did investigate for themselves. I’ve been asked before to write a private essay for soem of their groups. I encourage people to look into it for themselves and look very very closely at the history of the American educational system and its links to the socialist-Communist movements since the American Revolution. The Pledge of Allegiance and its history are inextricably linked to the socialist-marxist agenda in the United States. The NEA was founded in 1857 by a socialist/Marxist, and the Pledge of Allegiance was written to help the NEA achieve its socialist-Marxist agendda.


21 posted on 04/26/2013 6:05:12 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: muawiyah

Of course there is, but that does nothing to change the general effect and its usage to promote unthinking obediance to a alien political movement intent upon destroying individual and familial civil rights and the Constitutional guarantee of a republican form of government.


22 posted on 04/26/2013 6:10:57 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

How do you feel about the Oath of Loyalty we take in milittary and public service?


23 posted on 04/26/2013 6:12:28 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: WhiskeyX

And lets not forget the nifty little salute they used to make the kids throw before the guy with the funny mustache gave it a bad rep.


24 posted on 04/26/2013 6:15:15 AM PDT by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: silverleaf

If the Democrats overtly ditched the Constitution, would you still insist upon yourself and others to recite or at least standup in respect for the Pledge of Allegiance to a Flag which then repesents an anti-Constitutional regime, and perhaps an illegal regime?


25 posted on 04/26/2013 6:16:14 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: markomalley
Mixed feelings on this one
Being forced to recite a pledge, you personally disagree with is offensive. Smacks of a POlice state.

We have an organization here in our little town that required all members to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at each meeting.
This being a group dedicated to helping keep the town clean and neat by picking up trash and litter on a weekly basis.
Our winter Visitors from Canada(propety owners here) refused to recite the pledge and left the group.
I should have.
Uber Patriots sometimes forget, some people have good reasons to refuse.
Good reasons that have nothing to do with hating the U.S. but everything with loving their own country.

26 posted on 04/26/2013 6:18:09 AM PDT by Tupelo (The Government lies, then the media lies to cover up the government lies.)
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To: WhiskeyX

Then we can adjust it ~ but I want it to be adusted to my point of view, and not yours.


27 posted on 04/26/2013 6:18:11 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: WhiskeyX

Means nothing to me. My only loyalty is to God. All other relations are contingent.


28 posted on 04/26/2013 6:23:34 AM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (So?)
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To: Orangedog

Exactly. FDR’s Administration suddenly changed the Pledge of Allegiance salute from the outstretched arm typical of the Fascists to the hand over heart salute.The whole purpose of the Pledge of Alleigance is to instill a public embracement of unthinking obediance and loyalty to a regime and its falg more so than to the human principles and government of the People and by the People under a republican form of government guaranteeing the civil rights of individuals and families.
Hitler’s NAZI Germany, Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, the Communist regimes, and other totalitarian governemnts have all demanded such involuntary pledges of allegiance to their regimes as a means of using peer pressure and intimidation.


29 posted on 04/26/2013 6:24:07 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Many of the Founding Fathers would concur with your view.


30 posted on 04/26/2013 6:25:19 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: markomalley

...and what will happen to me when someone standing close to me during the pledge hears me say “stood” instead of “stands”? ..that one word change makes it a memorial lament instead of a pledge of allegiance to a government I no longer recognize as mine to be proud of and defend.


31 posted on 04/26/2013 6:36:56 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ( EVERY DIME Obama Spends is given to him by the Republicans in the House.)
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To: muawiyah

“I want it to be adusted to my point of view, and not yours.

That is of course anti-American due to its totalitarian approach to destroying individual and familial civil rights to live in freedom from om government powers not delegated to the government.

Why isn’t the Oath of Loyalty good and sufficient?


32 posted on 04/26/2013 6:39:02 AM PDT by WhiskeyX (The answer is very simple and easy to understand economics. The U.S. Treasury is printing vast)
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To: markomalley
Unexpected
33 posted on 04/26/2013 6:39:35 AM PDT by tomkat (a nation of spoiled children being 'led' by the very parents who excused their petulance)
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To: WhiskeyX
a tool for totalitarianism created by and for socialists using it as a tool of social indoctrination and authoritarian rule.

That's interesting. But if that's the case, it apparently didn't work as intended. Most of the patriots who quote the Constitution today grew up happily reciting the Pledge, and the socialists, liberty-haters, and 0bama cultists are the ones (by and large) who refuse to say it or stand for it.

Looks like the socialists' karma ran over their dogma.

34 posted on 04/26/2013 6:44:35 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: WhiskeyX

yes
but your question is twisted and illogical
they cannot “change” what the flag represents
the flag does not represent the “Constitution”.... or any other govt document
It represents ideals from our founding
(50) stars for a new constellation of unity in federalism
“The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun.”

13 stripes for the original colonies, and bravery of them all

red white and blue for colors taken form the Great Seal
“The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.”

So you see, to ditch those ideals, they would have to ditch the flag for a new standard.

Therefore those ideals our flag symbols represent are worthy of respect, even if men and women holding office are not.

http://usflag.org/colors.html


35 posted on 04/26/2013 6:44:51 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age Takes a Toll: Please Have Exact Change)
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To: WhiskeyX
i'm satisfied that the present oath is not totalitarian at all ~ and most folks don't work for the government. Any oath based on the 2 inside the Constitution, that is forced on people who neither run for office, voluntarily join the military, or hire on as government employees would, by the very definition, be involved in an act of totalitarianism.

Frankly, the only complaint anyone has about the current 'pledge', not an oath at all, is disrespect extended to those who say it by those who hate us and want to see us die in a thermonuclear holocaust ~ like that puerto rican kid who is wasting a desk in montgomery county.

36 posted on 04/26/2013 6:52:47 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: markomalley
She also refuses to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance

The government is not constitutionally empowered to force one to say something or to force someone not to say something. This applies to all speech including prayer.

The government is not constitutionally empowered to force someone to buy something or to force someone not to buy something.

The government is not constitutionally empowered to force someone to marry or to force someone to not marry.

The government is not constitutionally empowered to force someone to burn the flag or to force someone to not burn the flag.

The government is not constitutionally empowered to force someone to abort a baby or to force someone not to abort a baby.

37 posted on 04/26/2013 9:23:51 AM PDT by MosesKnows
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To: Abundy; Albion Wilde; AlwaysFree; AnnaSASsyFR; bayliving; BFM; cindy-true-supporter; ...

Maryland “Freak State” PING!


38 posted on 04/26/2013 7:01:47 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Drag Me From Hell!)
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