Attacks on the First Amendment reach schoolhouse doors
By: Rob Miraldi
Guest columnist
..... The 2025 school year - now upon us - will bring challenges, triumphs and anxieties for 50 million students as they return to American public schools. But add to the overall picture the challenge that will come from a variety of lunacies unique to American culture.
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Will the kids be afraid to look at the windows that punctuate their auditoriums for fear that a nearby shooter, for no reason anyone can understand, will be raining down bullets? Are the books in their libraries - especially ones dealing with transsexuals or curse words or making too many references to sexuality - really so dirty that they need to be banned? Should their cherished mobile phones, the link to their cyber world, be banned from schools?
..... But now politics are also knocking at the schoolhouse door. Take the case of
14-eyar-old Danielle Khalaf from the Detroit suburb of Clinton, Michigan, population 100,000 reasonably affluent and racially and ethnically diverse. A nice place to live, by all accounts. But Danielle is still having nightmares from last January [2025] as she finds herself in federal court because of what occurred in her classroom.
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Danielle is a ninth grader of Palestinian descent. She's a U.S. citizen but has watched with horror - along with the rest of the world - as 60,000 Palestinians have died after the terrorist group, Hamas, slipped into Israeli territory on October 7, 2024, killing 1,200 and kidnapping 251. the counterattack by Israel, still going on, has been horrific.
..... On January 6, [2025] Danielle declined to join her classmates for the morning Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.
..... "Quietly and without disturbing her class, [she] remained seated," a lawsuit on her behalf says. "She sat quietly while her classmate recited the Pledge."
..... According to the lawsuit, her teacher, Carissa Soranno, admonished Danielle in front of the class, reporting her to school administrators.
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"She was being disrespectful and should be ashamed of herself," the teacher declared. but the next day, Danielle refused the Pledge again. And was publicly rebuked again.
..... After the third time she declined to pledge, Daniele explained her reasons to her teacher. She believe that "the deaths caused by the Israeli Defense Forces in Palestine were financially supported, and either implicitly or expressly supported, by the U.S. government."
..... A reasonable belief, no matter which side you believe was responsible for the nightmare that is now the Gaza strip a 25-mile long stretch of coastal land adjacent to Israel that has been virtually leveled. Ninety percent of Gaza's 2.1 million people have been displaced. famine grips the country. Newborns die quickly because of malnutritions.
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Her teacher would hear nothing.
..... "Since you live in this country and enjoy its freedom, if you don't like it, you should go back to your country," she allegedly told the young girl.
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I say "allegedly" because the school district, saying it is a personnel matter, has not yet responded or filed papers in court. Parents on the school's Facebook page say is not in the classroom now.
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Of course, a compelling reason Danielle's teacher needed to be chastened was that she missed a glorious teachable moment. where did Daniel's family come from and when? What is Palestine? And the Gaza Strip? What is the splinter group Hamas? What are the competing arguments for how to end this crisis moment? Controversial and complex; not the stuff of censorship but of debate and discussion.
..... The court papers do indicate that Soranno was given a "corrective action notice" by the district: "You made multiple comments expressing your beliefs as to why students should stand for the Pledge of Allegiance." The notice adds. "This is a district violation."
This is why the teacher was wrong
..... The teacher was wrong on so many counts.
..... First, the Constitution's freedom of speech clause guarantees government cannot force someone to say something they don't believe. Second the U.S. Supreme Court in 1943 decided a famous case involving Jehovah's witnesses that citizens can't be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
..... "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, its that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other natters of opinion," the court declared.
..... In other words, you don't have to please your allegiance to your country - or your president.
..... America is a land of contrasts. The Statue of Liberty has welcomed generations of immigrants. And they have made America what it is - a melting pot cliche, including for 200,000 Palestinians.
..... On the other hand, each one of those generations has faced ostracism and hostility. We know the nicknames and deep-seated discrimination. It's amazing immigrants from Latin America still want to cross our border.
..... so when it happens in Michigan, it shouldn't surprise. What surprises is that a school district didn't act more forcefully and, as the Arab American Civil Rights League argues, remove the teacher from the classroom to protect other students. The free speech guarantee allows a person to disagree.
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And they don't have to leave.
..... Michigan law, in fact, prevents it from jamming the pledge of Allegiance down any citizen's throat., 14 years old or otherwise. but by ignoring its own law, the state has left Danielle unable to sleep, guarded, stressed out and in therapy. I asked her ACLU lawyer, Mark Fancher, if I could speak to her, and he answered: "She would really like to go back to being 14 years old."
..... He added, "when you consider the controversial nature of the issue we can only marvel at the conviction and incredible courage it took for her to fellow her conscience, and her heart."
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Does this attack on free speech and Danielle come from the top - the president - or is it just deeply embedded in the culture? Probably both. On August 25, [2025] President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to ban burning of the American flag, despite the Supreme Court protecting this type of "symbolic speech."
..... "There must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail, he declared. in other words, don't criticize your government - or me.
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When the Supreme Court heard hat case in 1986,the government's lawyer summed up its position: "If you don't like our country, pack your bags." a variation on "love or leave it" to Vietnam War protesters. Or Trump's more rent tweet: 'IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!"
..... The same message Danielle's teacher gave her. no dissenters allowed.
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Freedom of speech will not send the nightmare in the Middle east. However, our ability to talk to each other about the problem will at least give us a chance. When a young girl voices her pain about the country of her forefathers we need to listen - and not silence her.
.... Young people forced us to face the Vietnam War. No matter your belief on how the Israelis should handle the Gaza Strip, all different voices need not only be available ... they need to be protected and welcomed.
..... Rob Miraldi's First Amendment writhing has won numerous awards. He taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Email: rob.miraldi@gmail.com