There is a child in Western Pennsylvania who doesn’t want to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  And the law says she doesn’t have to.  Almost 70 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that schools cannot coerce students into reciting the pledge.  That’s why most schools have made it a voluntary act.
So it’s unlikely that the (of course) un-named child will have to show the proper respect to her country and her flag because she has the individual and fundamental right to be rude.
(I’m sure the civil libertarians out there consider it a fundamental right of conscience.  You say tomato, I say to-MAH-to.)
Still, I’m getting increasingly annoyed at parents who instill in their children the idea that they are ‘all that’ and aid and abet them in their preciousness.  Even if this middle school child came up with this animus toward the country by herself (according to her she can’t fathom pledging allegiance given the ‘state of the country’ just now) her parents should have knocked that existential angst out of her adolescent head and said “don’t make a spectacle of yourself, Susie, life is not a reality show.”
I’m sure the ACLU types will be horrified by that.  I mean, after all, our children are our future and we want them to think independently, right?
Well, some children are actually just show-offs who like to get on the evening news.  And their parents have no problem signing up an agent for them.
With celebrity, and chutzpah, for all.