A New Jersey middle school teacher has been reassigned to perform duties outside the classroom during morning announcements because she kneeled during the Pledge of Allegiance.
The school board’s decision to reassign the teacher came after an October 2 Vineland Board of Education meeting when two community members complained that the teacher’s decision to kneel during the pledge forced a political agenda on impressionable students.
One ex-military parent said it was offensive to see a political agenda being set in the classroom after he served 20 years in the military saving lives.
“That type of behavior offends me,” said Randy London, a U.S Coast Guard veteran who spoke during the school board meeting, according to the Vineland Daily Journal. “I’m not saying anyone needs to agree with everything, but if that is the district’s policy, there should be no teacher … taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Ron Maccri, a Vineland resident, also complained that she was using tax dollars to take the role of a parent, calling her kneeling during the pledge “reprehensible.”
Maccri added that the school was named after Sgt. Dominick Pilla, a U.S. Army ranger killed in Somalia on October 3, 1993.
“Teachers are paid to educate our students, they’re not paid to indoctrinate our students, he continued. “What this woman is doing would be bad in any school, but because it’s in the (Sgt.) Dominick Pilla School – who gave his life for our military – it’s reprehensible.”
The principal decided after the school board meeting to reassign the teacher to administrative duties during the morning’s homeroom period to avoid further conflict, the Philly Voice reported.
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