{"id":58447,"date":"2019-02-18T00:14:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T00:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=58447"},"modified":"2019-02-18T00:14:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T00:14:48","slug":"11-year-old-arrested-refusing-stand-pledge-allegiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=58447","title":{"rendered":"11-year-old arrested after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old student was arrested after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and allegedly telling a teacher that \u201cthe flag is racist and the national anthem is offensive to black people,\u201d according to reports.<\/p>\n

The boy, a student at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Fla., was charged with disrupting a school function and resisting arrest without violence for the Feb. 4 outburst, according to Bay News 9.<\/p>\n

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He was also issued a three-day suspension.<\/p>\n

His mother, Dhakira Talbot, said officials took things too far by arresting her son, who she said is in gifted classes and has been bullied in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son has never been through anything like this. I feel like this should\u2019ve been handled differently,\u201d she said. \u201cIf any disciplinary action should\u2019ve been taken, it should\u2019ve been with the school. He shouldn\u2019t have been arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

The classroom kerfuffle happened when a substitute teacher, Ana Alvarez, ordered the boy to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n\n

When he told her he believed the flag was racist and the anthem was offensive, Alvarez asked him \u201cwhy if it was so bad here he did not go to another place to live,\u201d the teacher said in a statement to the school district.<\/p>\n

The teacher said he replied, \u201cthey brought me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarez then told him, \u201cWell you can always go back, because I came here from Cuba and the day I feel I\u2019m not welcome here anymore I would find another place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she resorted to calling the main office \u201cbecause I did not want to continue dealing with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The student also allegedly called school leaders racist, threatened to get the school resource officer and principal fired and beat up Alvarez, according to an arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

He denied threatening to beat the teacher in an interview with Bay News 9 with his mother.<\/p>\n

Polk County Public Schools spokesman Kyle Kennedy insisted that the boy was not arrested for failing to stand for the pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are not required to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance,\u201d he told The Ledger.<\/p>\n

The sixth-grader was collared \u201cafter becoming disruptive and refusing to follow repeated instructions by school staff and law enforcement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n