Students at Gorham High School are saying the Pledge of Allegiance regularly again after an absence from the school day of more than 20 years.

The Gorham School Committee voted last week to begin saying the Pledge over the intercom each morning.

The School Council, a representative body of teachers and students, had voted to open up the gymnasium before school for students who wanted to recite the Pledge, rather than saying it in classrooms. School Superintendent Ted Sharp had let the School Council debate and vote on the matter as a civics lesson for students.

However, School Committee members ultimately voted, 6-1, in favor of Sharp’s original proposal, which had been rejected by the School Council, at a meeting attended by parents, students, military veterans and school administrators. Saying she supported the School Council proposal, Kathy Garrard was the only committee member opposed.

School Committee members said the vote would give students an “opportunity” to say the Pledge. According to Sharp, students cannot be compelled to recite it and no student would be punished for declining to say it.

A debate over when and where the Pledge should be recited at the high school had been prompted by Suzanne Ennis, a parent and substitute teacher, who presented the town with a petition bearing more than 300 signatures. In addition to calling for the Pledge to be recited in classrooms, the petition asked the School Department to put flags in each classroom – something that was done this fall.

“We’re very pleased that the superintendent and School Committee were so responsive to the will of the people,” Ennis said following the Jan. 14 meeting.

The School Committee Pledge decision also drew plaudits from the head of a Maine veterans organization.

“It’s in the classroom where it should be,” said Gorham resident Bob Bernard, state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Pledge is already recited in all other Gorham schools, kindergarten through eighth grade. Dennis Libby, chairman of the Gorham School Committee, said last week the Pledge would be recited at the high school beginning Monday, the start of the third quarter.

“People are passionate about this,” Libby said at the School Committee meeting.

School officials had allowed the School Council input on the Pledge issue as a lesson in the democratic process. But Gorham resident Alan Reed, a member of Gorham Memorial Post 10879 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said Sharp had the power to make the decision.

“You got people’s blood pressure up,” Reed said about the public emotion. “The end result is good.”

Before its Pledge vote, the School Committee asked high school principal Chris Record, who stepped to the public podium, about whether announcements on the intercom were daily at the school. Record confirmed announcements were each day.

But the School Committee didn’t open discussion about the Pledge to the public. Don Hadley, senior vice commander of the VFW post in Portland, said “that surprised me” about the public not having an opportunity to be heard.

It also surprised a former Gorham School Committee member, Steve Morin, who said the Pledge was an important issue.

“I credit the School Committee for making the right decision,” Morin said.

John Ennis, husband of Suzanne Ennis, had urged the School Committee in a letter before the vote to support citizens who signed the petition. “They want the Pledge of Allegiance recited over the intercom every morning at Gorham High School just as it is at every other school in town,” John Ennis wrote.

Eighty flags were installed last month in classrooms at Gorham High School.

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