Pledge of Allegiance begins at WJHS

BY: MALLORY J.

Michael Bute, the principal at West Jefferson High School, began having students announce the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom beginning on October 29, 2018. There is an ongoing conversation about whether this is an act of constitutional freedom or an act of religion. Some students agree with this decision, but some students don’t.

Beginning at the end of October, students were asked to stand and say the pledge during their homeroom period. When an email was sent to the student body, there was some controversy concerning what this would entail and why this decision was made. Mr. Bute was available to answer some questions as well as a student giving her thoughts on the situation.

To Mr. Bute, the Pledge is an important part of being American. He says, “I believe that it gives us an opportunity to recognize and honor those who have served and that are currently serving in the military.” Raina Peter, a sophomore student at WJHS, has different experiences coming from another country. She says, “It shows me how much the difference is because sometimes people over here take it for granted and they do not understand the meaning of how many people fought for this country and they have the freedom to everything and anything but it is not the same for other countries.”

Some students were confused as to why the decision was made to begin after the first quarter and not at the beginning of the year. According to Mr. Bute however, this was a carefully thought out approach. “I try not to implement too many things all at once. We want to make sure that I had communication with the staff members first, talk about how we were going to implement it and go from there. There was a process I went through to make sure that when we did implement it, it would be smooth.”

Some students believe that this violates the constitution. Both Mr. Bute and Raina disagree. “I don’t agree with that. Everybody has their right to either participate or don’t participate so I don’t believe it’s a violation.” Raina goes on to say, “It also says on the currency that ‘In God, we Believe’ so when people don't mind using the money then they should not mind saying it out loud.”

In the end, the Pledge of Allegiance is an important aspect to American history. Whether or not a person agrees with the act of saying it in schools, it still has a lot of meaning to show freedom. As Mr. Bute says, “We experience daily constitutional freedoms and liberties because of those who have served or are currently serving in the military.”