Group at Saddleback College to Reinstate Pledge at Meetings

Responding to lobbying from military veterans’ groups and city leaders, Saddleback College’s student government has agreed to reinstate the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at the beginning of each meeting, starting in August.

The student government dropped the pledge from the agenda last year, President Jeff Haskell said, because the practice of reciting it was insensitive to foreign students and atheists.

“People started to argue beliefs,” he said, rather than take care of business.

That decision drew a storm of protest, however, from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who threatened to cancel two scholarships for Saddleback students.

Laguna Hills Councilwoman Melody Carruth told Haskell at a meeting in March, “What is so disturbing is that you seem intent on destroying the college” with a controversy that could have a chilling effect on donations to the school.

The Laguna Hills council denounced the student policy, while San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach passed resolutions calling for reinstatement of the pledge on the agenda. La Habra was considering doing so.

Eric LaClair, vice president-elect of Saddleback’s Associated Student Government, said Monday, “The pledge will be reinstated at our first meeting in August for whoever wishes to say it.”

The student government’s decision a year ago to drop the salute, he said, “went a little too far.”