Must a public school teacher salute the flag during a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance?
Probably not. This answer stems from the landmark 1943 Supreme Court decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, where the high court ruled that public school students had a First Amendment right not to salute the flag. Even though the Barnette decision speaks directly about public school students, the same principles have been extended to teachers in subsequent decisions. In one case, a federal appeals court ruled that school officials violated the First Amendment rights of a public school arts teacher when they fired her for refusing to salute the flag. “We take guidance, instead,” they ruled, “from the Supreme Court’s instruction in Tinker, whose lesson is that neither students nor teachers ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.’ ” The court noted that the teacher did not “proselytize” her students but stood in respectful silence and that another teacher led the students in the pledge.
Probably not. This answer stems from the landmark 1943 Supreme Court decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, where the high court ruled that public school students had a First Amendment right not to salute the flag.1 Even though the Barnette decision speaks directly about public school students, the same principles have been extended to teachers in subsequent decisions. In one case, a federal appeals court ruled that school officials violated the First Amendment rights of a public school arts teacher when they fired her for refusing to salute the flag.2 “We take guidance, instead,” they ruled, “from the Supreme Court’s instruction in Tinker, whose lesson is that neither students nor teachers ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.'”3 The court noted that the teacher did not “proselytize” her students but stood in respectful silence and that another teacher led the students in the pledge.
