The Boston Globe reported today on a student effort to create a school policy that would enable the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance by students. M.G.L ch. 72, § 69 requires displaying the national flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; however, a court opinion in 1977 (Opinion of the Justices to the Governor) held that teachers and students can not be disciplined for failing to do that; and an even earlier 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, said that requiring students to salute the flag and recite the pledge violated the First Amendment.
See Massachusetts Law about Education for more.
