we were telling you about this the top of the show. students in sweeney, texas, will no longer be required to stand when reciting the pledge of allegiance after two high school seniors complained to the aclu. joining us right now is the president of the sweeney, texas, school board, sammy brooks. good morning to you, sammy. good morning. thank you for having me. ok. so in the past, there s been a requirement that during the pledge of allegiance in the morning, kids had to stand up and salute the american flag and the texas flag until these two kids complained. now, what s going to happen? well, it looks like we re going to have to change the requirement that this that the students be required to stand while reciting the pledge. the letter we received from the
aclu is, you know, they quoted several case laws that pretty much showed us it was well established and it looks like we re going to have no choice but to have to comply with the law that the requirement not be there. although i don t agree with that personally, i still think that we should be able to in our district, we should be able to set a standard of behavior that we require for our students to show. sure. and part of that should be showing respect to the flag of our nation and our state. uh-huh. now, sammy maybe pardon me, as i understand it, it is a texas state law where students are required to recite the pledge at the beginning of the day, right? that s correct. so in your school, in addition to recite the pledge, you required kids to stand as well. so now you re not going to require them to stand. well, you know, what we re going to do is probably change the wording to match what is
already established in united states code title 4. which is concerning the united states fact. chapter 1, section 4 talks about the pledge of allegiance from the matter of delivery and that statute states that it should be rendered while standing at attention facing the flag with your right hand over your heart. now, their wording is should be rendered and i don t see any reason why we can t use that wording. should be rendered. right. right. to me the definition of should be is kind of like an obligation or a duty. in fact, it actually is a privilege to salute the flag in such a way while you re reciting the pledge of allegiance. there are a lot of people that feel the same way, sammy. here s what the aclu of texas said in a statement. our bill of rights and american tradition protect the centers and the majority just the same. and the right to express disagreement is a patriotic value that all texans should fight for.