Students Now Say the Pledge at P.S. 89 By Carl Glassman Sitting or standing, hands at sides or over hearts, with flags or without, children now recite the Pledge of Allegiance at P.S. 89. This might not be news in most communities, but in the progressive milieu of Downtown schools, it’s radical and controversial. With the national debate over the pledge reignited last month by a federal appeals court decision finding the wording "under God" unconstitutional in four western states, the school’s new policy takes on added weight. As the school year drew to a close last month, there were still few flags in the classrooms. Most if not all the teachers declined to say the pledge with their students, and many children chose to remain silent as well. But a push this spring by several parents to comply with state law has led the school’s administrators to reluctantly call for a change in the morning routine, setting P.S. 89 apart from the two other local elementary schools, P.S. 234 and P.S. 150, and many other city public schools as well. (At Stuyvesant High School, beginning in the spring, the pledge was being said over the intercom. Students said that in many classes it was ignored by all but a few students who recite it. In other classes, teachers said the pledge and students were asked to remain silent if they are not saying it.) "I wouldn’t have it as part of their school morning as a mandate or a request that they do it if it weren’t an issue with some parents," said P.S. 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar, adding that she believed a small minority of parents had a strong interest in saying the pledge. At a PTA meeting last November, when the school was housed temporarily on the Lower East Side, P.S. 89 parents voted in support of the pledge. The previous month, the city’s Board of Education passed a resolution affirming state law, which mandates the recitation of the pledge daily and at assemblies in all public schools (with the choice of opting out). P.S. 89 teachers, however, chose not to go along, saying that rote recitation was contrary to the school’s philosophy. One mother was so upset she pulled her child from the school. Through the winter, there were bigger battles to wage as parents argued bitterly over the safety of going back to their school in Battery Park City. But at an April PTA meeting, after the children returned, several parents angrily denounced the teachers’ position, reducing the lone teacher at the meeting to tears, according to parents who were there. "It got ugly," said PTA co-chair Angela Benfield. "I said, this isn’t going to get resolved here, so let’s move on." In May, a note went home to parents stating that teachers will "offer the opportunity" to say a morning pledge. Each class seems to have found its own way. Several fifth graders in Christine Mulligan’s class said the pledge in the traditional way, but most did not say it at all. Next door, in Kristie Breed’s fifth grade, all the children said the pledge, arms at side, while seated cross-legged on the rug. An unfurled flag rested high atop a bookcase, still waiting to go up. "They do it enthusiastically," said Breed. "It’s a novelty for them." In Julie Haraga’s second grade class, most students said the pledge, without a flag, standing in a circle. Haraga stayed silent off to the side as the students led the pledge and other morning routines. "It was never an issue before," said Haraga. "I understand parents feeling the need, but I wish they felt they could do it at home." Haraga said she was uncomfortable with the reference to God. In brief interviews, many fifth graders seemed to have already thought through their decision. "After 9/11 the pledge meant more than just a speech," said Adam Echahly. "I started thinking about the words." "I can express myself in other ways than just one way," said Jane Shonhaut. "I’m patriotic in my own way." "I don’t like to say it because one line says, ‘One nation under God,’" said Lydia Booz. "It’s kind of unfair. There are other nations under God." At P.S. 234, Principal Anna Switzer said her teachers do not want to say the pledge, and parents haven’t complained. "It’s too divisive, so families and teachers have decided to respect each other by not raising it as an important issue." "I get scared about teaching these things without having a background or a purpose," said P.S. 150 Principal Alyssa Polack. "Maybe we should start pledges in middle school, after the kids learn about American history." But Maria Ouranitsas, a P.S. 89 PTA co-chair who noted the many patriotic gifts sent to the school, was troubled that parents and teachers wanted to keep out the pledge. "I feel embarrassed that we’re the way we are," she said. "How can we not say it after what happened to us right in our own backyard?"