Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance? That's downright un-American

The Arizona House on Tuesday approved what is perhaps the most unpatriotic bill of the year.

The bill comes courtesy of Mesa Rep. Barbara Parker, one of the Legislature’s newest and most extreme members.

Earlier this month, Parker opposed waiving the aggregate spending limit that, if left in place, would have forced many of Arizona’s public schools to close their doors.

Last week, she broached the idea of building a monument to the late Senate President Russell Pearce – the far-right firebrand who was recalled by his own constituents.

Now, she’s back in action with a bill that would force Arizona’s school children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each day, unless they are excused from doing so by their parents or are 18 years old.

This bill is not about freedom ... of speech

House Bill 2523 was approved by the Arizona House on Tuesday on a party line 31-29 vote. It’s been proposed before but never passed.

Given the far more conservative makeup of this year’s crop of Republican legislators, I’m guessing this exercise in fake patriotism will be applauded.

Parker paints her bill as the red-white-and-blue thing to do.

Roberts:Look at the wondrous things lawmakers have done so far

“What could be better than to educate children about this country, how much we love America and remember freedoms we hold dear,” Parker said, during a hearing on the bill earlier this month.

Every freedom, apparently, other than the First Amendment.

State law already requires public schools to offer time each day “for those students who wish to recite the pledge of allegiance to the United States.”

As the schools should. And do.

Forcing the pledge isn't patriotic. It's coercion

We take pride in our national symbols. Unfortunately, there are a fair number of people who forget what those symbols … well … symbolize.

Forcing people to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag isn’t a sign of patriotism. It’s a sign of a coercion here in the land of the free, a country that is supposed to revere “liberty and justice for all.”

One of the many things that makes America great is the fact that you don’t have to stand for the national anthem if you're a football player or recite the Pledge of Allegiance if you’re a fifth grader.

Just ask the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courts agree: You must be able to opt out

In 1942, the children in a family of West Virginia Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to salute the flag and were sent home from school and even threatened with reform school.

The following year, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the court ruled that the state’s Board of Education violated the students’ First Amendment right to free speech.

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation,” Justice Robert Jackson wrote, “it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.

“We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power, and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.”

In 2008, a federal appellate court carved out an exemption, ruling that states can require students to recite the pledge as long as a parent can give permission for their children to remain silent.

The Supreme Court has yet to consider the question.

Rep. Parker says this is about parental rights

Parker casts her bill as a parental rights issue.

“The current law is that parents have a right to direct the education of their child,” Parker said, during Tuesday’s floor debate on her bill. “And this is a parents’ rights state.”

Indeed it is, and there is nothing that prevents a parent from telling their children to salute the flag every morning before brushing their teeth and to recite the pledge every night, right along with their bedtime prayers.

Parker, however, believes it should be a state requirement.

“We stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day on this floor,” Parker said. “What’s good for us is good for the children.”

The difference, of course, being that nobody forces Barbara Parker or anyone else to say the pledge. They do it because they want to.

This is what freedom should look like instead

Parker’s bill says that students in Arizona’s public schools “shall recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag” unless they are 18 or have a parent’s permission to opt out.

No word on how the schools would police the law to ensure that every child is saying the words out loud. Or what punishment would ensue if the kid attempts to exercise his or her First Amendment right not to speak.

No word either on whether the state will reimburse schools for the lawsuits that inevitably are coming, should this bill pass.

It seems to me the more patriotic approach might be to teach students why they should want to say the pledge.

I, like most of you, recited the Pledge of Allegiance every day when I was in school. I proudly say it still whenever the opportunity arises.

But surely anyone who says it – and believes it – must defend the right of someone else not to say it.

Really, isn’t that what freedom looks like?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance? That's un-American