No other judge in South Hampton Roads follows the same routine. The pledge became a hot-button political issue earlier this year when a state senator tried to make public schools suspend students who failed to profess their loyalty to the republic. The amended law passed anyway. Next school year, students will recite the pledge each day in public schools. But the General Assembly removed mandatory penalties originally proposed by Barry and gave local school boards discretion in punishing students who disrupt the pledge.
Students can opt out for religious, philosophical or any other unspecified reason.
In the scheme of all things judicial, reciting the pledge as a quirky beginning to a day of law and order is hardly the most controversial. Former General District Judge Katherine Howe Jones, whom Thomas replaced, had been criticized for sentencing people to write book reports. An Alabama judge used to start his days with a courtroom prayer under a sign proclaiming the Ten Commandments. But a Newport News general district court judge has been reciting the pledge in his courtroom for more than a decade without controversy. So Thomas, barring any hue and cry from civil libertarians, plans to keep the pledge up and running.