By Renee Worthing 

Staff Writer

Most adults remember starting their school day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but high school students in School Administrative District 6 (SAD6) will not have that memory.

Recently parents voiced concerns that Bonny Eagle High School students do not start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Standish resident Amy Dunning-Stepnick said her 18-year-old son, Jason Keefer, a senior, and her freshman daughter, Elizabeth Keefer, told her the Pledge of Allegiance has “never” been recited at the start of the day, over the intercom or otherwise.

Dunning-Stepnick said she is concerned about “values and fundamentals” in schools and said “children do not have a good strong beginning of the day.”

“Why is it so difficult to take 30 seconds to say it?” Dunning-Stepnick asked. “Bonny Eagle has lost respect. Wow, in a time of war, a presidential election year and so many of our soldiers dying over there [in Iraq and Afghanistan] and they don’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. Our tax dollars are paying for this school.”

Rolling Thunder Chapter 2 President and Sanford resident Joe Armstrong was outraged when told of the situation by the Post.

“That is deplorable,” he said. “They can’t take the time out of their busy schedule to say the pledge? That’s disgusting. What more honorable thing can you do than pledge to the very flag young men and women are dying for today?”

Exception to the rule?

Kennebunk High School Principal Pete Dawson said students at the high school recite the pledge every morning.

“One student says it over the loud speaker and students in the classrooms recite along,” he said. He said as he has walked past the classrooms, he observed most students standing and facing the flag.

Kennebunk Elementary allows each third grade student to take turns leading the pledge over the intercom. At Consolidated School and Sea Road School, each classroom says the pledge individually. Students at Middle School of the Kennebunks recite the pledge together with whoever is leading it.

School officials in Biddeford and Old Orchard Beach said all schools say the Pledge of Allegiance. Students at Biddeford High School recite the pledge in their individual classrooms while Thornton Academy, a private school in Saco, recites the pledge together every morning when it is recited over the loud speaker.

Saco Middle School students say the pledge on Mondays and Fridays. The other three days are reserved for “citizenship readings,” including recitations of The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and parts of the Declaration of Independence.

Sanford High School and Sanford Junior High recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day as well as the five elementary schools.

Willard School Principal Chuck Potter said the school secretary leads the students in recitation over the intercom system each day. He said each classroom displays an American flag and the American Legion recently replaced five.

Margaret Chase Smith Principal Sharon Remick said students at the kindergarten through third grade school also recite the pledge every day.

Remick said this year, the pledge is led every morning by a different third grade student.

“The kids love it, the parents who are in the office when it happens love it,” Remick said. “It’s a nice way to get everyone started.”

Dunning-Stepnick said when the subject came up last year, she took it to the SAD6 School Board which, she said, reacted with surprise and directed her to talk to the school principals. She said she sat down with former Principal Robert Strong and Principal Beth Schultz, who told her there was “not enough time” during announcements to say the pledge.

Shultz did not return several calls from the Post  seeking comment.

According to the school’s handbook, daily announcements are read in the morning during “homebase,” a homeroom block scheduled from 8:59 to 9:06 a.m. each morning.

Dunning-Stepnick said the she was told by the principals that the teachers may initiate the Pledge of Allegiance “on their own,” but Dunning-Stepnick’s children said that never occurred.

Maine Department of Education Communications Director David Connerty-Marin said the state requires schools to “teach respect of the flag” and individual teachers may have their class say the Pledge of Allegiance, but there are no statues requiring schools to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Each school can set their own policy,” Connerty-Marin said, adding schools are required to display the flag in front of the building.

Armstrong, of Rolling Thunder, said the school “needs to step back” and reconsider its position, even if saying the pledge isn’t mandated by the state. He said he wasn’t surprised Maine doesn’t require reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. 

“We are becoming such a liberal country,” he said. “Small numbers of people are speaking so loud, politicians are running scared.” 

Armstrong said he and Rolling Thunder Chapter 2 Vice President Steve Malo planned to visit Bonny Eagle High School to discuss the issue with school officials. 

Dunning-Stepnick said she took her complaint to SAD 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas, who she said was also surprised the school didn’t recite the pledge.

“She said she would check on it and call me back, but she hasn’t called back yet,” Dunning-Stepnick said. “She also hasn’t returned any of my calls.”

Lukas did not return numerous phone calls from the Post seeking comment.

Maine law outlines the responsibilities of superintendents, including the duty to “ensure that the United States and Maine flags are displayed from public school buildings every school day and on appropriate occasions, ensure that an American flag is displayed in every classroom in each public school in the unit; and report annually to the school board the amount necessary to furnish the public schools with suitable flags and flagstaffs. The school administrative unit shall appropriate the necessary funds.”

While the pledge isn’t recited at Bonny Eagle High School, Bonny Eagle Middle School students say it every morning, Principal Ansel Stevens said.

He said announcements are broadcast over a closed-circuit television system and each morning the production crew, made up of students, requests their classmates to stand and say the pledge.

“Almost all the students participate [in saying the Pledge of Allegiance],” Stevens said, adding students who do not wish to participate may sit quietly.

 Students in all other SAD 6 schools, including Frank Jewett, Jack Memorial, S.D. Hanson School, Eliza Libby, H.B. Emery Jr., Steep Falls, Edna Libby, George E. Jack, and Hollis Elementary, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, although each school does it slightly different.

Making changes

On Oct. 17, Gorham High School said its students did not recite the Pledge of Allegiance either.

Gorham School Department Superintendent Ted Sharp said there was no policy in place within the district that requires schools to say the pledge.  He said school committees set the policy, and although he hasn’t “seen them all,” he said he wasn’t aware of any school policy in Maine that required the schools to say the pledge.

  Within one hour of a phone call,  Sharp’s Administrative Assistant Rhonda Warren called back to say all schools in Gorham were contacted to ensure the Pledge of Allegiance was being recited. She said Sharp issued a directive that all Gorham schools, including Gorham High School, would recite the Pledge effective Oct. 20.