Proposed North Dakota law would force students to say the Pledge of Allegiance

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North Dakota Republicans want to force public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless they have explicit permission from their parents otherwise. (Because nothing screams “small government” like forcing kids to repeat a mindless ritual in the name of patriotism.)

Two children close their eyes in front of an American flag (Image via Adobe Spark)

House Bill 1222, which is sponsored by 11 Republicans, is almost comically extreme in what it’s trying to change. As it stands, public school boards in the state can allow schools to say the Pledge at the beginning of the day, in classrooms or over the loudspeaker, but the whole thing is voluntary. No one has to participate. No one has to stand. Everyone just has to be respectful while the Pledge is said. Not ideal but perfectly legal.

This bill would change all that.

The current law says this:

A school board may authorize the voluntary recitation of the pledge of allegiance by a teacher or one or more students at the beginning of each schoolday. A student may not be required to recite the pledge of allegiance, stand during the recitation of the pledge of allegiance, or salute the American flag.

If passed, the proposed law would change that section to the following:

A student of a public school shall recite the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of each schoolday. A student must be informed by written notice published in the student handbook, or similar publication, that the student may be excused from reciting the pledge of allegiance upon written request by the student's parent or legal guardian. During the pledge of allegiance, any unexcused student shall show full respect to the flag by standing at attention with the right hand over the heart and, for males, removing any headdress, except when the headdress is worn for religious purposes.

In short, everyone has to participate unless their parents give them permission not to—which many parents may be very reluctant to do even if they agree on principle—and all kids who don’t have opt-out permission would be forced to participate in silence even if they didn’t want to personally say the Pledge. (It’s not clear what the excused children would be doing. Would they be sent out of the classroom? Be allowed to sit silently? Something else?) (This paragraph has been corrected from an earlier version.)

Because freedom.

And as if Republicans are already anticipating lawsuits over this, the same bill offers legal immunity to all school staff, administrators, and board members who get sued over the Pledge. (Notice the change from “permit” to “require” when it comes to the recitation.)

As you can see, the current law already gives adults legal protection if they’re sued over Ten Commandments displays... but that section is irrelevant since schools can’t put stand-alone Commandments posters up in schools anyway. (Republicans are also trying to change that as we speak.) The GOP is resurrecting that moot part of the law to reinforce their desire to make kids say the Pledge.

Interestingly enough, the bill doesn’t list any punishments for students who go on to defy the law by not standing for or reciting the ritual.

This isn’t the kind of bill you file because you care about public education and doing what’s best for students. You file it because you’re waging war with public schools while also making a political statement to an insane group of voters who claim to be patriotic while trying to destroy our democracy.

So why is any of this a problem? I’ve made an entire podcast series about the history of the Pledge, but just to go over the biggest concerns…

The phrase “under God” pushes religion onto people who may not be religious.

The Pledge suggests, falsely, that we really have “liberty and justice for all.” (This is one reason that, historically, many Black students have protested saying the Pledge.)

It was originally written to promote anti-immigrant sentiment, which is why it’s all about pledging allegiance to our nation’s flag and not the flag of the country you may be coming from.

And frankly, our country isn’t always one that deserves admiration. Why would we want to “pledge allegiance” to a nation that is so often a global embarrassment?

These Republicans don’t care. They just want to force kids to fake their patriotism by reciting propaganda because their brand of conservative MAGA-driven politics is incapable of earning that respect on its own merits.

If you have to force children by law to say they love the country, then anything coming out of their mouths is meaningless. It’s also a slap in the face to their history teachers who, with a straight face, are still supposed to educate them about how freedom in this country also extends to the right to protest.

It brings to mind a long-forgotten story from 1916, when an 11-year-old Black child named Hubert Eaves refused to say the Pledge because he knew this country didn’t treat people like him as equals:

… Isn't it wrong to have me bowing and worshipping a flag that is a dirty flag; one that does not give my mother and father protection; a flag that represents a government that allows 'Jim Crow' cars, segregation in all public places in the South and other parts of the country; denies us a voice in state government and who practices Grandfather clauses and lets mobs take our people out and hang them without trial; show us no mercy in the courts, deny us the proper school education, disfranchises our people. winks an eye at Southern concubinage, ostracizes us in every way.

Eaves was arrested for his act of defiance.

For now, HB 1222 has been referred to the House Education Committee. Of the committee’s 14 members, 12 are Republicans and 2 of them (including the committee chair) are co-sponsors of the bill.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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