| A young high school senior who'd just turned 17 had stayed home from school starting on her birthday due to fears of physical harm for refusing to salute the flag during morning homeroom period. When the high school senior brought in some information about constitutional rights vs. saluting the flag, her homeroom teacher then told her to "snap to it" and salute the flag like everybody else, which the girl refused to do, stating that "I like America, but I don't have to salute the flag in order to prove it."
Her homeroom teacher then told her that she was spitting on the flag, and asked if she would like it if someone spat on the Star of David. The high school senior, who was Jewish, took offense to that remark, feeling that it was anti-Semitic. The debate over the high school senior's refusal to salute the flag grew even fiercer and nastier. For a few months, the girl's parents decided to keep her out of school until the school authorities would guarantee their daughter's safety.
The girl ended up losing friends at school, and nobody in school spoke to her, except to threaten to beat her up. When the incident got into a local paper in that area of the state, people began calling the girl's family's house to leave nasty messages, some of which were virulently anti-semitic, although others called to wish the girl and her family well, and to wish them good luck.
Things got nasty enough so that the Justice Department even ended up getting involved: when the high school senior finally returned to school later that fall, she was escorted to and from school every day by a member of the Justice Department, and she also ended up being escorted to and from all her classes. Ultimately, that spring, the girl also skipped her Senior prom, and ended up dropping the charges against her homeroom teacher, after her homeroom teacher essentially issued an apology for the remark that she'd made in response to the girl's refusal to salute the flag.
Having said all of the above, there were at least a couple of things that made this story as interesting as it was. First of all, the girl and her family were not leftwing liberals--not even liberals, but, in fact, were quite conservative. Later, the girl admitted that "had she been old enough to vote, she would've gone for Ronald Reagan.", and that she admired the (late) Mier Kahane. "I think he's great. I like what he stands for and says." Plus, she and her family really were quite patriotic, to boot. Secondly, it was interesting that a kid that age had as much awareness as she had of the workings of the Constitution and constitutional rights and that she had the temerity to stand up for her rights. |
