As a student, I am led to believe that schools are institutions which exist to instill education and good moral conduct into their students, without swaying or impacting their political or religious affiliations. While the schools I attended, including Seminole, did an excellent job of maintaining a neutral atmosphere in regards to politics, however it has come to my attention that some students are much less than satisfied with how the Pledge of Allegiance is administered. This has nothing to do with anti-American, anti-government, anti-justice-for-all, etc. feelings. Schools are meant to strive to be impartial on matters which can influence the opinions of their students. Therefore we feel that the mandatory Pledge of Allegiance means that the views of the government are being unfairly forced upon us. Certain aspects of life, such as beliefs and allegiances, should be determined within the household and with one's parents, not taught and practiced within schools. By all means, TEACH the pledge, its meaning, and its importance to American history/culture/society. However, demanding students actively participate (even respectfully declining, in essence, is still participation, just by presence) is in all respects, unconstitutional. Again, it is not the actual content of the pledge we take issue with, it's the fact that the school openly chooses one side. This is akin to the school defining itself as liberal or conservative, and results in children before they can comprehend the meaning of the pledge. It is unfair and quite unjustified. With all due respect, the pledge is inappropriate in schools in the same sense that instructional time set aside for coordinated group prayer is. Religious instruction is already deemed unsuitable, and we believe there is some commonality for the same reasons. For example, rather than setting class time aside for the pledge, students who wish to take the pledge can, for the twenty seconds it takes to say it, meet up before school much the same way the faith-based student group we have meets and prays in the mornings.By doing so, everyone is treated equitably, and those wishing to opt out no longer have to feel awkward about it because it will no longer be a classroom issue