How often is the Pledge of Allegiance recited in Stark County-area schools?
Will Metzger noticed something missing when he started his freshman year at Northwest High School.
Students didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance every day. At most, they would say it on Mondays, as they did in middle school. Some weeks, they didn’t say it at all.
Learn more about the pledge's history:Dec. 12 is Pledge of Allegiance Day
So, Metzger started saying the pledge silently to himself every day.
It’s his way of honoring his grandfather and Northwest High School graduate Michael Barkey, both of whom served in the military. Barkey, a sergeant with the Ohio National Guard, died in July 2004 at age 22 while deployed in Iraq.
“It’s important for me to say it because I feel like it’s a great way to respect the people that served our country,” he said. “... It’s to honor our people and to honor our country.”
A Canton Repository survey of local school districts found that whether the pledge is recited daily depends on the age of the students in the school and the district.
How often is the Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools?
The Repository asked 22 traditional public school districts in the Stark County area, the R.G. Drage Career Technical Center and Stark County Catholic Schools, which comprises 11 school buildings, how often the pledge is recited in their buildings. Nineteen responded.
The responses show:
Elementary students in all but one responding school district recite the pledge every day. Some Canton City elementary students recite the pledge daily, while others recite it every other day or once a week. Canton City leaders did not respond to a request for a school-by-school breakdown.
Fewer middle school students recite the pledge daily compared to the elementary students, with Jackson, Northwest and Sandy Valley reporting once a week and Canton City reporting that the pledge is recited at special events.
Eleven of the responding 19 districts reported that their high schoolers recite the pledge daily. Central Catholic recites the pledge every Monday, while St. Thomas Aquinas recites it daily.
Lake is the only public school district in Stark County whose school board policy requires that the Pledge of Allegiance be recited daily from kindergarten to 12th grade. Other districts have board policies that leave it up to the superintendent or principal to decide when and how often the pledge is recited.
Students are not required to participate in the pledge in any school district and no one can coerce a student to participate.
When administrators were asked why the pledge isn’t recited daily at the older grade levels, some administrators cited scheduling issues while others said they are continuing what’s been done for many years, possibly decades.
Northwest changed its pledge policy in January
The Northwest Local school board discussed its pledge policy briefly more than a year ago when a parent asked why middle school students didn’t recite it daily. But school officials said the issue got lost amid the debate over students wearing a mask.
Sarah Simon, a mom of two Northwest High School students and a veteran who was deployed to Iraq with the Ohio Army National Guard, questioned the district’s pledge policy again in October when the board was evaluating it and other policies as part of its periodic review.
At the time, Northwest’s policy did not require the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited daily but said the board encouraged it on a regular basis as determined by the classroom teacher or building principal. Students at Northwest Primary and W.S. Stinson Elementary Schools were reciting the pledge daily, while middle and high school students were doing so on Mondays.
“It seems like a really easy way to pay homage to our veterans,” said Simon, who is the chairperson of Moms for Liberty’s Stark County chapter that advocates for parental rights in schools.
She asked the board to consider adopting Lake’s policy, which requires the pledge to be recited in all schools daily at a time and manner specified by the building principal.
Northwest board member Julie Barkey, who is the mother of Sgt. Michael Barkey, also advocated for all Northwest students to recite the pledge daily as a sign of loyalty and respect.
“My son died in Iraq,” she said. “In consideration of that, I don’t think it’s too much of an inconvenience for students, administrators and teachers to say an 11-second pledge every day. Many young men gave up four years of their lives or their life in service of their country. If they can do that, 11 seconds — or less than a minute a week — would not be that difficult. His death is not what makes the pledge important to me but rather it is a means of showing respect to our flag and the Republic of the United States of America.”
Barkey said an informal survey she conducted through social media and text messages found that 76 of the 77 respondents, which included current students, former students, parents and grandparents, preferred the pledge be said daily.
“I just don’t see the problem with saying it daily,” said Barkey, 69, who graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas where she recited the pledge daily as a student.
Board member Victor Colaianni said at the board's January meeting that he asked a 98-year-old World War II veteran how often the pledge should be recited at Northwest, and the veteran said he fought to get rid of a regime that forced people to salute a man and a flag.
“I don’t think you should force anybody to do anything,” Colaianni recalled the veteran saying.
Superintendent Shawn Braman asked the board for flexibility regarding the policy. He advocated for — and the school board unanimously approved in January — a policy that requires the recitation of the pledge, but the time and manner of when and how often is left up to the superintendent.
As of last week, the pledge continues to be recited every day in Northwest’s primary and intermediate schools and on Mondays at the middle school and high school.
Braman said the district might increase the frequency next school year but didn’t want to change it midyear.
“We want to use as a possible learning situation,” Braman said.
Northwest parent Mindy McNeil has suggested the district invite a veteran to visit the school and recite the pledge with students and discuss what the pledge means to them as a way to ensure that the pledge remains meaningful to students.
Metzger said he hasn’t heard any students talk about the pledge and had only heard that the adults were debating the issue from Julie Barkey who had contacted students to get their opinions about the pledge.
Braman declined the Repository’s request to speak with Northwest students enrolled in a social studies or government class to get their opinions about the pledge.
Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @kweirREP
See how often your school recites the pledge
Here's how often the Pledge of Allegiance is recited in Stark County-area schools:
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Pledge of Allegiance frequency varies by Stark County school district
