![Hosting the SCLA Casptone Mentor Dinner outside allowed for more attendees on September 27, 2021 at Silver Creek. This event would’ve usually been held inside. According to Lauren Kohn, a SCLA 12 teacher, “If we have a higher number of people, as long as we can host the event outside, then that seems to be keeping every[one] safe”.](https://schsnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sxMAIGbSYGodZkqmrvTi5YWcJ1ssWA08ApkeMLpp-900x675.jpeg)
Voice over the speaker, daily announcements, upcoming events, and the pledge of allegiance, this is what students at Silver Creek High School and all public schools throughout the United States experience every morning. Standing up, being silent, and looking at the flag can to many be a way to show respect, while sitting down seems to be a repeated trend among some other students, shown by simply not having high regard for it, staying in their seats, and moving on with their day.
A junior at Silver Creek High School who chooses not to stand for the pledge of allegiance, Diana Gonzalez, expresses concerns about statements in the pledge.
“Honestly, I stop listening after the announcements, I don’t like thinking about the hypocritical statements made in it too much…. the ‘liberty and justice for all’ part because many minorities don’t get the same ‘justice’ that white male counterparts do get,” Gonzalez said.
Another student, Leslie Mendoza, a senior at Silver Creek High School, shares her concerns.
“I’d rather not stand for the pledge of allegiance because it has the saying ‘under god.’ I personally am not religious but it feels as if they are forcing the ‘right’ of religion onto everyone”
However, Drew Heath, a junior at SCHS, does stand for the pledge, saying
“I’m big with history. I should be proud of standing for the pledge of allegiance,” Heath said. “It’s a symbol of our freedom and that standing for the flag is a personal presence.”
From a teacher’s perspective, which is more or less is seeing 30 students per class, they only know a handful of students standing for the pledge.
“Not very many, about five? ” Elizabeth Neil, a Spanish teacher at Silver Creek said. This demonstrates that students prefer to sit for the pledge rather than idolizing it and putting it on a pedestal.
T Lyndon, a senior at SCHS, has shared their personal opinion and disagreement with the pledge.
“I don’t think it’s personally important to me. I could see how it could be important to other people, I just personally don’t find it important.” Lyndon stated. “I feel like it’s just kind of a commemoration to our country… almost like an agreement with what it stands for.”
Commenting on the significance of the pledge, Lyndon makes a point that the pledge is what the United States stands for and the values it’d like to have implemented into its students’ daily lives.
However, while that may be what America strives for, Lyndon has also expressed their opinion on this matter by saying “I don’t think the country has done a good job representing the values and I feel like it’s one of those things if another country had a pledge of allegiance and had their kids say in school, we’d think it’s the most preposterous thing.”
Nevertheless, standing or sitting, students are allowed to make their own choice on the matter, leaving it up to them to form their own opinions on the subject, whether they want it to have meaning or not, student are exercising their First Amendment which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…”
