MAHONING COUNTY Pledge is optional at career center

The center will hold a full-period Veterans Day observance under a new proposal.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Standing for and reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag will be voluntary under a proposed written policy being considered by the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center Board of Education.
The board accepted the measure for first reading Monday and is scheduled to consider it again at its Dec. 16 meeting.
"This is something that we have always done. We're just putting it in writing now," Superintendent Roan M. Craig said of the policy.
"The rationale is to keep the school district in compliance with the law," said Charlotte Guest, director of adult education.
The proposed policy reads: "No student shall be compelled/required to participate in the recitation of the pledge. Additionally, the board prohibits intimidation of any student by other students or staff for the purposes of coercing participation."
The proposed language says the center will "develop administrative guidelines, which ensure that any staff member who conducts this activity does it at an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner, and with due regard to the need to protect the rights and the privacy of the nonparticipating student."
That means students won't be required to stand for or recite the pledge, said Edward Kapusinski, director of secondary education.
Religious reasons
"We do have a number of students here, who, for religious reasons, will not say the pledge of allegiance. Most of those students are very respectful. They do stand, which is their choice ... but they do not recite the pledge," Craig said.
"I think it's great that we have now tolerated everybody," said Patricia Vivo, board member, who said she felt sorry for a classmate who wouldn't stand up for the pledge many years ago and was daily ousted from the classroom by the teacher.
The proposed policy also allows school staff to authorize moments of silence, which school officials have done "whenever it was appropriate," Craig said. In addition, the proposed language says the center's Veterans Day observance must last at least one hour or one class period. "We have not had a full period dedicated to Veterans Day up until this point," she said.
Another policy given first reading permits voluntary expressions of religious faith during lunch and other noninstructional time. Some students say grace before eating in the cafeteria daily, and some gather to pray at the flagpole, Craig said.