OCC student leaders won't take pledge

The student government at Orange Coast College voted this week to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during its twice-weekly meetings, in a move that sparked protests on campus while some students hailed the decision.

At the board of trustees' Monday meeting, the student leaders voted, 3-1, to move the reciting of the pledge from future agendas, or meeting outlines. Only a small crowd attended that meeting, but several dozen students came to the Wednesday session, with one group bringing an American flag and reciting the pledge on its own.

Trustees Brent Bettis, who chaired the Monday meeting, and Jason Ball, who voted for the measure, proposed excising the pledge because they felt that it upset some students. Bettis, who does not recite the pledge, said he often saw audience members refusing to join in the salute during meetings.

"If it's the majority of students at our school's will, which we don't know if it is or isn't, we will put it [the pledge] on the agenda," said Bettis, an economics and philosophy major. "But at our meetings, we felt that particular ceremony was making some people uncomfortable."

In addition, Ball, a political theory major, said that he felt holding a public ceremony containing the words "under God" violated the separation of church and state.

"Some of the arguments made were that the idea of nationality is divisive, and on a diverse campus such as ours, there's no reason to be divisive," he said. "Another argument was that people shouldn't have to display loyalty to a country through public ritual on a regular basis. Another, of course, was the 'under God' section, which has become an issue all over the country.

"We do have an atheistic contingent who comes to our meetings regularly, of whom I'm a part."

Martha Parham, a spokeswoman for the Coast Community College District, said the decision to eliminate the pledge was up to the student government and out of the district's hands.

"It's my understanding that a few of the students, based on their own personal beliefs, are choosing to do this, and the district is not going to dictate personal beliefs," she said.