Some students and teachers refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance this week at Gorham High School in protest of the Gorham School Committee’s decision not to allow the public to speak prior to voting on a new Pledge policy.
Gorham High School Principal Chris Record read the Pledge over the intercom Monday after it had been absent from the school day for more than 20 years.
The new practice followed a vote by the Gorham School Committee Jan. 14. In its decision, the School Committee sided with a recommendation from Superintendent Ted Sharp over one from the School Council, which had voted to hold a special ceremony before school in the gymnasium for students who wanted to recite the Pledge.
“If they don’t want to, it’s their choice,” Dennis Libby, chairman of the Gorham School Committee, said Wednesday. “We can’t require them to participate.”
Last fall, the School Council, an advisory panel of 10 teachers and 10 students, rejected the proposal from Sharp that the Pledge be recited on the intercom. School officials allowed the School Council to be involved as a lesson in democracy and to make a recommendation to the School Committee.
However, students were frustrated that the School Committee didn’t allow the public to speak before its vote, which would have allowed members of the School Council to make their case.
“We didn’t get a chance to present it ourselves,” said Hallie Balcomb, a junior who is a member of the council.
With a room packed, the School Committee backed Sharp’s proposal, but the board didn’t open discussion to the public. Libby said the School Committee policy is unclear, leaving a decision up to the chairman. Libby said he had told those who inquired previous to the meeting that public comment wouldn’t be heard, and stayed with his decision to be consistent.
Libby said he hadn’t heard from Record since the Pledge resumed.
But, English teacher David Hochheiser, a member of the School Council, said Friday the lack of opportunity to be heard at the School Committee meeting has been a “huge issue” at the high school.
Hochheiser, who was prepared to speak at the meeting, said, “There should have been public comment.”
Balcomb said the principal recited the Pledge Monday over the intercom. But no one, including the teacher, stood for the Pledge in the classroom Balcomb was in, and only two students stood to recite the Pledge in another class across the hall.
Elizabeth Smith, a sophomore, said about half the class she was in on Monday stood for the Pledge.
She didn’t hear of a classroom in which the majority stood Monday. Balcomb believed it wasn’t a lack of patriotism, but demonstrated disapproval of the School Committee procedure.
“We were quite disappointed that there wasn’t public comment,” said Balcomb, who thought the School Council was devalued.
Several members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization attended the School Committee meeting and were prepared to speak, as well.
“I wanted to hear their side,” Balcomb said.
Hochheiser said students felt no one listened.
“I’m hoping for a better working relationship with the School Committee in years to come,” Hochheiser said.
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