MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
120101 FURY AT BROKEN 'PLEDGE'
By CARL CAMPANILE
December 1, 2001 -- Schools Chancellor Harold Levy yesterday
ordered principals to abide by a post-Sept. 11 policy
requiring all city schools to conduct a daily pledge of
allegiance ceremony - even as more districts appear set to
rebel against it.
"I expect all principals to enforce the Board of Education
policy," Levy said.
The chancellor's remarks were particularly aimed at renegade
District 3 on the Upper West Side, which passed a resolution
on Wednesday opposing the central Board of Ed rule and
allowing local schools to refuse to conduct a flag ceremony.
But the top official at Community School Board 2 in Manhattan
yesterday also came out against the Board of Ed policy - and
suggested the local board might decide to defy the daily
pledge policy.
"I would rather leave it to the individual school in each
district to make a determination whether to engage in reciting
the pledge," said Karen Feurer, chairwoman of Board 2, which
oversees schools in Chinatown, TriBeCa, Greenwich Village,
Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen and the Upper East Side.
"Each school district has its own culture. It's up to a
particular school to establish routines and demonstrations of
patriotism that are significant to them."
She said Board 2 hadn't planned on challenging the pledge
policy, but now might follow District 3's lead.
District 2 has tackled other explosive social issues. It was
the first local school district that voted to boot Boy Scout
troops out of the schools because of the organization's policy
on gays and lesbians.
Meanwhile, parents at PS 87 - a District 3 school on 77th
Street and Amsterdam Avenue - were divided on the flag
controversy.
Some parents opposed making the pledge compulsory. Jeff Ewing,
whose daughter, Larken, is in first grade, sided with District
3.
"It should depend on what the school wants to do," said Ewing.
"There's so many bigger fish to fry . . . The pledge of
allegiance to me is incidental."