Minnesota town's Pledge of Allegiance ban shouldn't shock. It's now commonplace on campus.

Amid controversy involving the city council of St. Louis Park, Minn. unanimously voting to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before each session to be more inclusive toward diverse groups, Campus Reform takes a look back at reports where college campuses have sat down for or scrapped the Pledge, as well as instances where students and faculty branded the patriotic sentiment as racist. 

St. Louis, Park is a suburb of Minneapolis and is part of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional district. Omar, during her relatively short time in Congress thus far, has faced considerable criticism for multiple comments perceived to be anti-semitic and even anti-American, including one in which she referred to the 9/11 attacks by saying “some people did something,” prompting one NYU professor to ask “when did the memory of 9/11 become ‘sacred’?” 

1. Student veteran banned from reciting Pledge of Allegiance because it might offend international students

Army Staff Sergeant Cory Schroeder, who served a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, was told by the University of Wyoming student government that he is banned from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before its student senate meetings. The reason for the ban was that it could offend international students, specifically the two international students in the student government.

[RELATED: Betsy Ross flag criticism is nothing compared with college’s treatment of Old Glory]

2. VIDEO: Student senators sit down during Pledge of Allegiance

In a video obtained by Campus Reform, more than 10 members of Clemson University’s student government sat during the Pledge of Allegiance in a planned protest of President Donald Trump. Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) Vice President Jaren Stewart explained his decision to sit, citing a racial divide. Stewart claimed that “our racial divide is ingrained and it’s very real” and asked the attendees if they “think about it when you put on your shoes and when you go out to eat lunch?”

3. Calif. board of trustees scraps Pledge of Allegiance over ‘white nationalism’ history

The President of the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees said that the board would no longer be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, accusing it of being “steeped in expressions of nativism and white nationalism.” He also stated that he objected to the “phrase ‘one nation under God.’”

4. College scraps Pledge of Allegiance over ‘white nationalism,’ then reinstates

The President of the Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees temporarily reinstated the Pledge of Allegiance at board meetings after receiving extreme backlash. Former SBCC student Alex Madajian told Campus Reform that “SBCC has had a history of being uncomfortable with the foundations, ideas, and principles of Western Civilization.”

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