It's 2019 and students are still getting suspended, expelled and arrested for refusing to recite the 'Pledge of Allegiance'

In February, an 11-year-old African American student at the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida faced criminal charges after he refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and supposedly created a “disturbance in the classroom.” School and police authorities insisted he was not arrested because he refused to say the “Pledge,” but because he refused to leave the classroom when ordered to by a school administrator. Students have the legal right in Florida and the constitutional right in the United States to opt out of participating in the Pledge of Allegiance and flag ceremonies.

Charges against Jabari Talbot were later dismissed partly because of intervene by rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z. The philanthropic division J-Z’s entertainment company provided Jabari with the lawyer who got the case thrown out.

The February 4th incident was precipitated by a substitute teacher who challenged the student when he refused to stand for the Pledge. The young man responded that the flag is a "racist" symbol and he considered the National Anthem because it is offensive to Black people. According to an article in USA Today, the teacher retorted that if he considered it "so bad here" he could always go back to where he came from.

The substitute teacher claimed she reported the incident to school administrators because she did not want to have to keep "dealing with him." School officials claim a police office and the Dean of Students went to the room where they “tried to calm the student” and that he “created another disturbance and made threats while he was escorted to the office.” He was arrested because of the “threats” and “failed to comply with the officer and the school administrator interfering with the educational process.” The substitute teacher is no longer employed by the school district, but she was not arrested.

In a television interview Jabari’s mother demanded that all charges be dropped. “She was wrong. She was way out of place. If she felt like there was an issue with my son not standing for the flag, she should’ve resolved that in a way different manner than she did.”

Jabari was suspended from school for three days and has since transferred to a private school. According to the family’s lawyer, "the police report has been largely fabricated in order to justify the wrongful arrest," including adding the word “racist to mischaracterize the event." The family will file an official complaint with the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.

On its twitter account, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida called the charges against Jabari “outrageous.” “Students do not lose their First Amendment rights when they enter the schoolhouse gates. This is a prime example of the over-policing of Black students in school.”

The Advancement Project, a national Civil Rights organization, circulated an online petition demanding that the charges against Jabari and three-day suspension be dropped; the police officer be removed from the school; and the school be held accountable for this abuse of trust and authority.

In a similar incident, India Landry, a senior at Windfern High School in Houston, Texas was expelled from school in September 2018 for refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. According to Texas law, a student must recite the pledge unless they have written permission from a parent or guardian's permission that allows them to opt out.

The Texas Attorney General has intervened in a court case brought by India’s family on the side of school authorities. You can watch India Landry explain her views with this link. India, like Jabari, is African American

Note: The Board chair of the Advancement Project, Bill Lann Lee is a veteran civil rights lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration and as Assistant Counsel in the New York office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He was also one of my AP biology lab partners in high school.