America


Pledge of Allegiance


Under Assault “Woke” warriors pose growing threat to our solemn oath.


W BY DAVID A. PATTEN


hen third-grade teacher Sophia DeLo- retto-Chudy was called into the principal’s


office at Becker Elementary School in Austin, Texas, earlier this year, she had no idea it involved the Pledge of Allegiance. Among the requests the


principal presented the first- year teacher: Stop advising students it’s OK to sit and ignore America’s time-hon- ored Pledge of Allegiance to “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” DeLoretto-Chudy was


next morning, it had gone viral and tallied over 1.5 million views. In a state with over 1.4 million vet-


erans — the most of any state in the country — what followed was prob- ably no surprise. The school district placed the young progressive activist on administrative leave. The school board terminated her pro- bationary employment con- tract a few months later. It then surfaced that the


DELORETTO-CHUDY


not happy. She took her anti-pledge case to TikTok, where she posted a tearful video recounting her “demor- alizing” experience in the principal’s office. By the time she woke up the


22 NEWSMAX | DECEMBER 2023


student sit-downs among DeLoretto-Chudy’s third- graders began after she taught a lesson that Adolf Hitler had used his propa- ganda machine to indoctri- nate German children.


That the pledge reflected the values


of the nation that defeated Hitler and the Nazis somehow didn’t sink in. Nevertheless, by the time DeLo- retto-Chudy left the classroom, her


videos had been viewed 4.5 million times. Her attitude was symptomatic of what many conservatives see as a growing threat to the Pledge of Alle- giance from culture wars. A South Carolina school district is


facing a lawsuit from a student who claimed a teacher pushed her against a wall when she didn’t stop to recite the pledge on her way to class. Last year, a teacher at a high school


30 miles north of Houston was forced to settle a lawsuit for $90,000 — not for boycotting the pledge, but for requiring it. When a student refused to say the


pledge, the teacher ordered her to write it out. A group called Ameri- can Atheists supported the student’s lawsuit, specifically objecting to the phrase “under God.” The American Humanist Associa-


tion, meanwhile, continues to push an online campaign to “Boycott the Pledge.” Its website states, “Stand up for America by sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance boycott.” It specifically objects to the phrase “one nation under God.” When the Waukee, Iowa, school


board decided high school students and teachers should recite the Pledge


CHILDREN/JBRYSON©ISTOCK / DELORETTO-CHUDY/TIKTOK@SOPHFORPRESIDENT


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108