US

11-Year-Old Florida Boy Arrested For Disrupting A School Function After Refusing To Stand For Pledge Of Allegiance

Shutterstock image via user Tom DeCicco

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Evie Fordham Politics and Health Care Reporter
Font Size:

An 11-year-old boy from Florida was charged for disrupting a school function and resisting arrest without violence after refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance in school Feb. 4.

The unnamed boy’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, is demanding the misdemeanor charges be dropped, reported WHDH Monday.

“I’m upset,” Talbot said according to Orlando Weekly. “I’m angry. I’m hurt … If any disciplinary action should’ve been taken, it should’ve been with the school. He shouldn’t have been arrested.”

The incident also included a verbal disagreement with a substitute teacher who will no longer be able to work at schools in the school district, a school district spokeswoman said according to WHDH. (RELATED: Teachers Want A 12 Percent Raise In A California School District That Went Into A Financial Crisis In 2017)

The boy, a sixth grader at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Florida, told the substitute teacher that the flag was racist.

The teacher responded by asking the boy why he did not find another country to live in, according to the Washington Post.

(L-R) Kevin Flynn, Brooke Zumwalt and Joseph Miller, fourth grade students at Longstreth Elementary School pledge allegiance to the flag March 24, 2004 in Warminster, Pennsylvania. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)

(L-R) Kevin Flynn, Brooke Zumwalt and Joseph Miller, fourth grade students at Longstreth Elementary School pledge allegiance to the flag March 24, 2004 in Warminster, Pennsylvania. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)

“They brought me here,” the boy replied according to a statement from the teacher.

“Well you can always go back, because I came here from Cuba and the day I feel I’m not welcome here anymore I would find another place to live,” the teacher said she responded.

She then involved the school’s office and the boy was “arrested because he refused to follow multiple commands, repeatedly called school leaders racist and was disruptive, according to an arrest affidavit,” reported WHDH.

The student reportedly threatened to get the school’s principal fired and to beat the substitute teacher. He was taken to a juvenile detention center Feb. 4 and suspended from school for three days, according to WaPo.

The school district spokeswoman said the substitute teacher was unaware that students are not required to participate in the pledge of allegiance.

Controversies about the pledge of allegiance in schools have raged recently, including at a Georgia elementary school where the principal suggested the pledge be replaced with a new pledge about “students’ civic responsibility to their school family, community, country and our global society.”

Other children have kneeled during the pledge. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauded a child for refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance during class in August.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel