Three punished for sitting during pledge

DILWORTH, Minn., May 9 (UPI) -- The principal of a Minnesota school where three students were suspended for sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance said the district may change its policy.

Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High School Principal Colleen Houglum, who suspended the three eighth-graders Thursday for violating district rules that state "all students will stand" during the pledge, said the rules "may need to be modified to address the protection of the individual's form of expression," the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Friday.

Kim Dahl, whose son, Brandt, was one of those suspended, said Houglum told her that she and other officials "are taking some steps to take the (suspensions) off their records."

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union, said the school's actions violate the Constitution.

"The school can't do that; that's illegal," he said of the suspensions.