Should Students Be Forced To Stand for the Pledge? Teacher Fired For Confronting Student Who Sat

BLUE ISLAND, IL — A part-time drivers education instructor at Eisenhower High School was fired over claims that he refused to give driving lessons to a 15-year-old student who would not stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dist. 218 Superintendent Ty Harting confirmed that Vincent Ziebarth was terminated March 17 from the Blue Island high school. The popular driver’s education instructor, whom kids called “Mr. Z,” was not a state-certified teacher but an instructor hired to teach students behind the wheel.

While district policy prohibited him from commenting further on the disciplinary action, Harting said the school was able to act swiftly without having to go through arbitration.

“There was a bit of a disagreement,” Harting said. “[The instructor] thought that the student needed to stand. He had family connections to the military. Kids have a right not to stand during the pledge whether we agree with them or not, and teachers should know that.”

The confrontation began on Aug. 26, 2016, between Shemar Cooper and another Eisenhower teacher, when the student decided to sit down during the Pledge of Allegiance. The young man’s teacher claimed that Cooper said, “America suck(s),” according to an online petition started by the student’s mother, Kelly Porter.

Porter says she made her son apologize to the teacher. According to Porter, the teacher said there would be no more problems and her son was welcome to sit quietly during the Pledge of Allegiance. A few days later, Porter claims the Spanish teacher forcibly tried to make her son stand up during the pledge.

The other teacher was reprimanded by school officials. Porter thought that was the end of it, until learning that Ziebarth told Cooper he wouldn’t give him driving lessons unless he stood up during the pledge.

“I had a one-on-one conversation with him that, due to his decision to sit for the pledge, I would no longer take him in my car,” Ziebarth told CBS 2 Chicago. “All I told him is that, based on his actions, he has a choice with his actions. I was exercising my right to make a choice as well.”

Porter says her politically motivated son was “bullied” by the part-time instructor, who violated her son’s rights.

“He does not stand because he does not believe in America,” Porter told NBC 5 Chicago. “He says America is a very racist country, there is no freedom or love for black people.”

Porter claims her son has been abused by other students angry over the instructor’s firing, who have since started an online petition to get Ziebarth his job back.

Harting said the district’s high schools have occasionally had students that would not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

“The district’s policy is that unless [the student is] disrupting the educational process, kids have individual civil rights and we have to let them exercise them,” the superintendent said.

Meanwhile, Harting says he is confident the school district made the right decision, given the set of circumstances it was presented with.

“We may or may not respect what the student is protesting,” Harting said. “Our job is to teach kids and keep politics out of the situation. We understand it impacts people’s feelings and emotions, but we got to stay apolitical.”