UPDATE TO AN OUTRAGE – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:  We reported yesterday on the crusade of a Massachusetts high-school student to get the Pledge of Allegiance back in his school.  Local politically correct "educators" had banned it, in part because they thought it would offend some of the teachers.  I'm not making this up.

Well, here's an update.  We can claim partial victory:

Student Sean Harrington appears to have won his fight to bring the Pledge of Allegiance back into his Massachusetts high school -- except the principal's proposed solution leaves the daily honor to the nation's flag literally hanging in the hall.

Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High school in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins -- but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped.

Kathleen Bodie, Arlington superintendent of schools, told Fox News Radio that “The principal wanted to be very respectful about the pledge and be sensitive to the Supreme Court ruling that students are not forced to say the pledge. He wanted to be sensitive to the diverse group of students we have.”

As we said, a partial victory.  And once again the word "diversity" is trotted out to defend the indefensible – the fact that the pledge still cannot be said in class.  Might "offend" someone. 

It is true that the Supreme Court has ruled that no one is required to say the Pledge.  But it has never said that a school should ban the Pledge to avoid "offense."  This is another part of the left-wing game:  You must not offend me, but of course we can offend you because we're enlightened.

It is unclear whether Harrington, who led the fight to bring the pledge back to the school, will be satisfied with the compromise of having it recited in the foyer, and not in class. When he was a freshman, he noticed that there were no American flags in the classrooms, and he enlisted the aid of his fellow students to get them installed. He also began his fight to have students voluntarily recite the pledge.

We hope he wins his fight.  Those "offended" by the Pledge, and apparently some of their agony involves the words "under God," can remain silent.  In their silence they might contemplate the fact that nothing will happen to them for refusing to recite.  They then might reflect on why they refuse to pledge allegiance to a country that has such remarkable freedoms.

July 1, 2010