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Gorham panel recommends pledge alternative

By Kelley Bouchard Portland Press Herald Staff Writer January 12, 2009 05:01 PM

GORHAM -- Gorham High School students and staff would be given time to gather and say the Pledge of Allegiance each morning in the auditorium before classes start, according to a proposal approved today by a student-teacher advisory council.

The council developed the proposal, approved by a 14-4 vote, as an alternative to a pledge policy recommended in November by Superintendent Ted Sharp.

Under Sharp's proposal, the school would provide an opportunity to say the pledge every day, in every classroom, possibly over the intercom.

The town's School Committee is scheduled to consider Sharp's proposal, as well as the student-teacher council's alternative, when it meets Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Town Council chamber at the Gorham Municipal Building.

Sharp and other school officials recently realized that it had been about 30 years since the pledge was said regularly at the high school.

Sharp sought input from the student-teacher council -- an advisory panel made up of 10 students and 10 teachers elected by their peers -- before seeking final approval from the School Committee.

The council voted 15-4 against Sharp's proposal in November.

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