TRACY (CBS13) — A conflict over the Pledge of Allegiance in Tracy has drawn the attention of a national group that is demanding the school district rescind its punishment.

CBS13 first told you about Derek Giardina, 17, who says he’s been given detention and docked points after omitting the reference to God, and the school district is standing by its decision.

The American Humanist Association sent a letter to the Tracy Unified School District saying Giardina was told by school staff that the law required the pledge be recited with the phrase “under God.” The group says that isn’t true and is a violation of his constitutional rights.

Giardina says he went along with his speech and debate class assignment to lead West High School in the pledge.

Everyone in the class is required to do it 12 times a year. He read the 1954 version his first two times. But on his third he felt it necessary to remove the line “under god” from his reading, simply skipping over it and reciting the pledge as it was before the 1954 amendment during the Cold War.

Giardina says he’s agnostic, but then learned his grade had been docked.

District spokesman Sam Strube told CBS13 on Thursday that while school leaders respect all students’ rights not to say the pledge, Giardina was disciplined because the reading was an assignment.

“A public forum where you’re going to represent the school is not a place where you can voice a controversial issue and force that on other people,” he said.