Atlanta School: No More Pledge Of Allegiance In Morning Meeting

Updated at 3:22 p.m.

Students at an Atlanta school will no longer say the Pledge of Allegiance to start their school day.

The Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School announced the change in a news release earlier this week.

The pledge will be recited in student’s individual classrooms, but not in the school’s collective morning meeting.

The school released another statement about the pledge after media reports.

“It has always been the practice of ANCS to provide students with an opportunity to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each school day,” Lia Santos, the current ANCS Governing Board Chair, wrote.

Elementary campus president Lara Zelski told parents it has become “increasingly obvious” during the past couple of years that more people were choosing not to stand or recite the pledge.

School officials say students will continue to be asked to stand to participate in the school’s Wolf Pack Chant each morning.

Also, teachers will work with students to create a school pledge that will focus on civic responsibility to the students’ “school familly, community, country and our global society.”

The release went on to say, “We do this in an effort to set clear expectations for how we will treat each other and behave here at school and to promote a sense of safety and togetherness.”