FAQs

QUESTION: May a student be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or be punished for failing to do so?

ANSWER: A student may not be required to state the Pledge of Allegiance or be punished for failing or refusing to do so. There are two reasons for this answer. First, state law-KRS 158.175(1)-says that if the pledge is given in a school, pupil participation "shall be voluntary." Second, the United States Supreme Court in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Burnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), ruled that under the federal Constitution, a school district may not force a student to recite the pledge. The Burnette decision is clear that government may not "compel a belief," meaning government is prohibited from requiring a student, or any citizen for that matter, to adopt as his or her own belief a particular view in politics, religion or other matters of opinion. As it was so well stated within the Burdette decision:

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

319 U.S. at 642. Echoes of this point may be found in Sections 1, 5 and 8 of the Kentucky Constitution.

A 1980 Attorney General Opinion (OAG 80-456) states:

It must be reemphasized that school employees should be directed to avoid any action intended to coerce or influence a student to participate in the pledge if the student desires not to so participate. The teachers should be cautioned to do nothing to cause embarrassment or ridicule to come to the child who, for whatever reason, declines to participate in the pledge of allegiance. The student who declines to participate should not be required to or even asked to defend the reason or reasons for this position.

At the same time, however, a student who declines to participate may not create a disruption during the pledge. Disruptive behavior would be subject to discipline as set forth in the district's discipline code. If the student remains in the room, he or she should remain quietly seated. The OAG above states a student cannot be required to stand or to leave the room during the pledge, unless that is the student's independent request and desire.

Kentucky School Boards Association

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