Republican State Sen. Adrian Dickey has proposed Senate File 2043. It’s a bill that prohibits a teacher, while in a classroom with any students K-12, and with the intent to politically influence the students, from failing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, unless the teacher is prevented from doing so by a documented disability.
The bill also prohibits a teacher from speaking about the Pledge of Allegiance in any manner in which the students may reasonably understand the teacher’s speech to be an unpatriotic commentary on the United States or an attempt to politically influence the students while in a classroom with any students K-12.
If a teacher violates the proposed law, the bill requires the school to provide written notice of the violation to the teacher, provides parents and guardians of students enrolled in the school with written notice of the teacher’s violation and provide the Department of Education and the Board of Educational Examiners with notice of the teacher’s violation.
A second violation will lead to a one-week suspension for the teacher without pay. A third violation will result in the teacher being immediately terminated.
