Stone Chaney, a sixth-grader at East Middle School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, doesn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because he doesn’t believe in pledging to a flag. He’d rather give his allegiance to God and his family.

That shouldn’t be a controversial stance, but his teachers reacted to his passive protest by trying to force him to stand against his will.

A teacher was put on leave and is under investigation after he allegedly got physical with a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. … “The teacher consultant comes up behind me and snatches me out of my chair violently,” Stone said. “I was so confused. I didn’t know what was going on.” Stone said the homeroom teacher tried to force him to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.

A “teacher consultant”? If his phrasing is correct, that’s someone who trains other teachers… which means this may not just be a case of one spoiled apple, but a whole barrel full of them.

Hell, look what happened the following day:

The alleged incident happened Sept. 7. Stone said the next day, another teacher yelled at him for sitting down during the Pledge.

The entire staff needs to be trained on how to handle students during the Pledge, because they seem to think it’s mandatory for kids to stand during it. It’s not.

The District admits Stone had every right to remain seated during the Pledge and said the teacher in question — I assume only the first one — “has been placed on administrative leave.” Stone’s family hasn’t decided if they’ll send him back to that school, though.

What’s scary is that this isn’t even the first time we’ve heard of teachers allegedly assaulting students over the Pledge. It happened in North Dakota in 2014 and Illinois in 2016.

In all these cases, teachers seem to think forced patriotism is true patriotism. They have no clue what the Pledge is about, do they?

(via The Root)

