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.
So if she doesn't like the US, then maybe she should go to the Dominican Republic or some other island in the Caribbean...where she can be "free."
I agree. Indeed, any person who comes here and tries to change our culture should just go back where they came from or to a place where their views are more acceptable. I think she’d be comfortable in Haiti.
I wonder how they would feel if she refused to say the Pledge because she didn’t like the President.
> The Damascus High School student said she’s protesting the political situation in Puetro Rico. Although the school district doesn’t require students to recite the pledge, the girl said she’s been harassed over the issue.
Nobody’s making her recite the pledge. It’s just that she doesn’t like other students exercizing their right to free speech in condemning her actions.
Learn to live with it, honey, the world doesn’t revolve around you.
Is the American Communist Liberties Union going to back the student who was kicked out for wearing a pro-military tee shirt (because her father is in the military)?
Is the American Communist Liberties Union going to back the student who was kicked out for wearing a pro-NRA tee shirt?
Didn’t think so.
Hey, chirping little bird, do you realize that despite your being an honor student and all that other ‘stuff’ that society says makes you smarter than everyone else that you are just a stupid little sheep in a big herd of stupid little sheep.
I watch from beyond the fence and laugh at you stupid little sheep being led to the slaughter house.
No, I will not save you when the time comes.
Somehow, the little tiny violin illustration comes to mind...
Deport her.
You are all dead wrong in your criticism of her refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. For very good reasons I have given in FreeRepublic previously, every true Patriot of America ought to refuse or respect others who refusee to with a tool for totalitarianism created by and for socialists using it as a tool of social indoctrination and authoritarian rule. You all owe this young lady an apology for not making the effort to get past the prejudice and attempting to understand the nature of the conflict.
"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."
and how large a package said "apology" will be ?
Never mind her particular case and motivations. Concentrate on yourself and your own motivations for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The vast majority of Americans reflexively recite the Pledge as a duty that is unquestioned and certainly not understood with respect to its purpose and consequences. Many people I’ve spoken to have become not just a little horrifiedd to discover the true nature of the Pledge and how it subverts the spirit and perhaps the letter of the founding principles and docuemnts of the United States democratic republic. The Oath of Loyalty is appropriate where the Pledge of Allegiance is arguably destructive of the American Revolutionary principles and promotes totalitarianism.
The island was divided into several different mini-states.
The Spanish found it a convenient base for their military forces in the Americas and that was it's primary use for several centuries. The United States then acquired it from Spain and organized it under well practiced 'territorial' laws. in 1948 all Puerto Ricans became citizens of the United States, and as far as I know the USA is the first nation state on the planet to do that.
The young lady is sadly mistaken in her beliefs.
maybe, maybe not ~ the Apostles Creed wasn’t handed down by God on a tablet either, but most Christians recite it frequently. (BTW, some don’t ~ but that’s not the point of my comment ~ )
Same with the pledge ~ the designer may have been nasty, but he accidentally came up with something we can rub in the left's face ~ then, grind them under our boots!
Whom are these "many people" you've spoken to that discover such a horrific "true nature" (which itself should be defined) ?
Your reply is intrigueing.
Amen. I just wish the ACLU was consistent with who they defend.
If you read the article, the girl is saying that she's being harassed by teachers and/or school administrators (was called to an assistant principal's office). If what she's saying is true, then she's in the right here - we may disagree with what she's doing and why (I certainly do), but that does not give the government the right to harass her for it.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written by co-authors who were socialists and/or Marxists whose stated goal was the development of social and economic equality by forcible redistribution of wealth by a U.S. Government owning all public businesses and enterprise. The purpose of the Pledge of Allegiance was to divert public support and indoctrinate the public into supporting a public education system controlled by the National Education Association (NEA) and its objective of making hijacking U.S. eduucation and remodeling it after the Prussian authoritarian and totalitarian methods.
They intended for the Pledge of Allefiance to divert public loyalty away from the Constittion and its principles of individual and familial civil rights and redirect those loyalties towards a flag and U.S. Government controlled by a totalitarian socialist rregime dedicated to engineering social submission and loyalties to the NEA agenda for political and social indoctrination.
By contrast, the Oath of Loyalty I swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is prootective of the Revoultionary human principles which the Pledge of Allegiance would subvert in favor of an anti-Constittional government.
It should be noted the Pledge of Allegiance had no official standing in the U.S. Government until the ultra-socialist Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his openly Communist Vice President enacted legislation aiding the NEA to indoctrinate our children and adult population with this foreign and totalitarian tool.
If you want a pledge of allegiance, why not write and adopt a pledge of allegiance which fosters voluntary allegiance to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution instead of the socialist=Marxist hijacking of our society?
The way things stand now, too any would be Patriots are defending a nest full of eggs and chicks which another bird long ago replaced with its own brood after killing the original brood of the nest owner.
there is the issue of standing vs the issue of reciting
she should be made to stand as a sign of respect for the beliefs of others and the flag of the nation in which she is residing. No country would expect less
reciting, she can keep her mouth shut. hopefully her family is not collecting benefits from this govt she despises apart from the about $14K a year taxpayers are spending on her “free” education
Pledging "allegiance" to the "Republic," at least in its current iteration, is not something I am willing to do.
See, there's always more than one side to this.
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