DATE: Friday, May 16, 1997                  TAG: 9705150646

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 

                                            LENGTH:  105 lines

EYES AND EARS

. . . With liberty and justice and rules for all . . .

Show up for school in the morning, stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, sit down and get to work. You might not think the schools would need guidance in this long-standing ritual, but guidance they now have.

The state Board of Education at its April retreat approved preliminary guidelines on reciting the pledge, which they'll vote on after receiving public comment. The General Assembly passed a law in 1996 ordering the board to establish guidelines.

Here they are:

1. The Pledge of Allegiance may be made part of the curriculum of the public schools.

2. No student can be compelled to recite the pledge if the parents object on religious or philosophical grounds.

3. The school shouldn't subject the dissenting student to ``any unfavorable comment or stigmatizing treatment.''

4. The nonparticipating student will be required to refrain from disrupting or distracting the pledge reciters.

5. All students can be required to learn the pledge, if not recite it, as part of a civics or history lesson.

Speaking of history, Congress adopted the Pledge of Allegiance in June 1942, during the first year of the United States' involvement in World War II. The words ``under God'' were added in 1954.

The written guidelines emphasize that they are not requirements, but intended only to help local schools.

- Matthew Bowers

SUFFOLK

Reality Check. . . Tawney J. Moller's husband sent her balloons at work when she was named the city's Teacher of the Year. He often sends flowers to her at Kilby Shores Elementary School for special occasions, such as the first day of school.

Moller kidded the boys in her second-grade class that when they grow up they should follow his example, to endear themselves to their wives.

One boy was interested in the payoff. ``Will our wives cook and clean for us?'' he asked.

A girl classmate, both feet firmly planted in the 1990s, cut him off: ``Let's not get carried away.''

- Matthew Bowers

VIRGINIA BEACH

To speak or not to speak. . . As he started his graduation speech at Virginia Wesleyan College last week, former newspaper editor John Seigenthaler Sr. made a confession:

Of the 30 commencement speeches he's heard over the years, ``I confess to you that I can't remember a memorable line from any one of them. And I have given 10 of those speeches myself.''

With that sad truth, Seigenthaler said, he had two options: ``Simply to sit down to your wild, uproarious applause'' or to ``swim against the tide,'' trying to say something memorable.

He ran the choices by his nephew - who heard Seigenthaler speak at his law school graduation and also couldn't remember what he said. The nephew knew what Seigenthaler would choose. ``He said, `As much as you love wild and uproarious applause, you like the sound of your voice even more.' ''

And so Seigenthaler continued to talk.

- Philip Walzer

CHESAPEAKE

Seat at the Table. . . At its last work session before passing the city budget, City Council members were considering funding cuts. Mayor William E. Ward noticed school superintendent W. Randolph Nichols standing in the back of the room. He invited him to a seat up front. Nichols hesitated at the attention.

``I was hoping out of sight would be out of mind,'' Nichols said.

- Nancy Young

NORFOLK

Pizza, please!. . .

``I'm hungry!. . . I'm getting a headache,'' Granby High School freshman James A. DesRoches II said to his parents in Norfolk's federal court Monday during a period of private discussions among lawyers.

After nearly three hours in court, DesRoches, 15, said he was ready to put a hurtin' on some grub.

Preferably a big pizza.

The folks were in court because DesRoches wanted an emergency injunction to let him return to school early after he received a 10-day suspension May 2 for refusing to cooperate with a school search.

A legal agreement Monday allowed him to return to school the following day. The teen-ager also agreed to consent to school searches until the court rules later this month on his latest lawsuit, which stemmed from the suspension.

The Norfolk district has a policy of random student searches, which school officials say are necessary to keep out drugs and weapons.

If DesRoches' suspension had not been cut short under the agreement between his lawyers and those from City Hall, he could have failed ninth grade.

Norfolk students who miss 10 days or more in one semester may flunk. The district's rule may be waived if extenuating circumstances were behind the absences.

In response to the suspension, DesRoches and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia recently filed a lawsuit in Norfolk's federal court. That suit will be addressed at a May 28 trial.

DesRoches is also one of three students at Granby and Maury high schools who decided this school year to challenge the school system's random-search policy itself.

They say the policy is unconstitutional. That trial will take place in November.

- Vanee Vines KEYWORDS: PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

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