Pledge Makes Comeback at CVHS

After years of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, it seems it’s making a comeback at CVHS.  But why did it ever stop in the first place?

“All students please rise. Hand to chest. And begin…” Those exact words were said to students at the beginning of each day for decades followed by students reciting in unison the poem we know the words to so well. So what changed? 

This was a normal activity for kids at CVHS and other local schools, until it suddenly came to a stop that lasted for several years. Recently, it returned to students’ routines every Monday. 

“When I became the Activities Director it’s not like there was a manual that says here’s everything you’re supposed to do,” said leadership teacher Thomas Maloney. “And so after talking to people we just kind of decided to restart it.”

There was no full reason for the stop of the pledge, but it could be quite an adjustment getting back into the routine of doing this every week. 

“Personally, I don’t have much of an opinion on doing the pledge for myself, but I do think it’s really cool that CVHS is reopening a new opportunity for students to show their patriotism if they choose to,” said sophomore Ariadna Estebanez.  

Before the startup of the pledge a couple weeks ago, over the announcements a special segment called “This Day in History” was being broadcasted every day. 

“What the Ed Code asks for us to do is a civic moment whenever we make an announcement. So currently we are doing ‘This Day in History’ every morning,” said Principal Blaine Torpey.

The Education (Ed) Code is a collection of all the laws directly related to California K-12 public schools. During this segment students get to hear about a significant moment in history that happened on that day. 

One of the struggles with reciting the pledge everyday is that a lot of students often fail to participate. This could be seen as a problem as it often gets quite chaotic trying to get the students to cooperate during the short time that the pledge is being played.

“One of the things about America is you have a lot of freedoms in life, and so some people exercise that freedom by standing and reciting the pledge and some people exercise that freedom by not standing or not reciting that pledge. Every teacher and every person is going to handle that differently. We don’t have a school-wide plan to get students to participate but we would like them to. We would like them to be at least respectful of it,” said Maloney. 

Only time will tell how this new weekly routine will play out, and what people will think of it.