Pledge Issue to be Discussed at Tonights Subcommittee Meeting

After a couple weeks of silence, the Arlington School Committee's Policies and Procedures Subcommittee will look at the Pledge of Allegiance issue that garnered national attention last month.

High School Senior Sean Harrington and the Arlington Public Schools were thrust into the national spotlight in June after the School Committee deadlocked on Harrington's request reinstate the Pledge of Allegiance at Arlington High School at their June 22 meeting.

Though the pledge is recited in all of the elementary schools and at the Ottoson Middle School, it stopped being recited daily at the high school years ago, and the decision as to whether it is recited daily has been left up to the individual school administration.

Harrington spent three years gathering more than 700 signatures for his petition to to reinstate the pledge in the high school. He presented it at the June 22 meeting and the committee voted 3-3. A tie fails.

The story went national after Fox News ran a report on the issue and soon the School Committee was flooded with phone calls, e-mails and threats.

Tuesday night, the Policies and Procedures Subcommittee of the Arlington School Committee will meet to discuss the issue and possibly set a guideline for all the schools to follow.

The discussion of the Pledge is sandwiched between other issues typically discussed at the monthly meetings, including a technology presentation and a public participation section. The Pledge will be discussed from 6:30 p.m. and is scheduled for a half an hour.

The discussion will likely center around the drafting of a new policy, working off the draft School Committee Chairman Joseph Curro proposed two weeks ago in addition to other drafts proposed by School Committee Members Judson Pierce (the chairman of the subcomitee) and Jeffrey Thielman.

"We are mindful and respectful of all people's concerns," said Pierce. "We are acting diligently and researching and learning as best we can on this and all the other issues that come to our table everday."

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Safety Building, which is where meetings are typically held in the summer since the high school building closes early all summer long.