A Wisconsin school district is on the defensive after a student reported that the Pledge of Allegiance wasn't recited in her high school until January 2013, and students omitted the words "under God" in the Pledge in March 2014.
On April 30, school officials confirmed that the Pledge of Allegiance was altered during morning announcements at Madison's East High School, but maintained that the declaration is read every day, as required by state law.
Madison School District spokesman Rachel Strauch-Nelson stated that on one occasion in March, a student omitted the words "under God" when reading the Pledge over the public announcement system. The next day, another student replaced the phrase with "under peace."
"Both students were followed up with," Strauch-Nelson said an interview with the Star Tribune.
An East High School student allegedly told conservative blogger Benji Becker that there were actually three March incidents.
In an April 25 blog post, Becker, 16, said that a student named Samantha Murphy sent him an email describing the occurrences.
"On March 4<sup>th, Samantha says her school began to remove 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, and added that they thought they were 'above the law,'" Becker wrote.
"On the first day of revision, they took out the entire line 'one nation under God.' The next day, they merely skipped the words 'under God.' On the third day, Thursday March 6<sup>th, 2014, they replaced the word 'God' with 'peace.'"
According to Becker, Murphy also told him that the school did not recite the Pledge every morning until January 2013.
Allegedly, Murphy's parents went to the school board, and reminded them of Wisconsin State Statue Chapter 118, Section 6: "Every public school shall offer the pledge of allegiance or the national anthem in grades one to 12 each school day."
Strauch-Nelson told the Star Tribune that the student is mistaken, and the Pledge of Allegiance has been recited daily for years.
