Student Knocked out of Chair While Sitting During Pledge of Allegiance

A student was knocked from his chair for sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance, and the incident was captured on video.

A high student at Winters Mill High School in Westminster, Maryland, is being disciplined for kicking the chair out from underneath another student as he sat for the pledge.

The student contended that his sitting peer was being “disrespectful” and needed to get his “[expletive] kicked.”

Students in Carroll County public schools aren’t required to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Winters Mill High School (Google Street View)

“Some people don’t understand how disrespectful it is to sit during the pledge or national anthem,” the teen’s video caption reads, according to MailOnline.

“If you have an issue with what I did today talk to me about it not your little buddy’s behind my back,” the student charged. It was posted on the student’s Instagram account.

Dana Falls, director of student services for Carroll County schools, told the Carroll County Times that the student was punished for the move.

A student was knocked from his chair for sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance, and the incident was captured on video. (Facebook)

Falls wouldn’t identify either student involved.

“His behavior,” Falls said, “is unacceptable.”

The student who sat down and whose chair was kicked out responded via social media. “I was practicing my right to free speech, a right given to me by the soldiers that I do respect, unlike what he says,” the student said before lashing out at the current administration.

In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling that the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.

Whether the case is bullying, Falls said that it depends.

The student who sat down and whose chair was kicked out responded via social media (Facebook)

“In my opinion, based on what I know about the initial incident ... that would be considered an unsafe behavior or disrespect to the student. If it continued, it would absolutely be considered bullying,” he told the newspaper.

Board of Education President Devon Rothschild noted that the school has a strict no-bullying policy.