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San Ramon’s California High School has been cast into the national spotlight in the past week after a decision by the school’s student leadership class to not play the national anthem during last month’s pep rally.
The decision came about after some members of the leadership class were contacted about concerns over the controversial and racially charged lyrics in the third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — a verse that is not sung in renditions of the anthem.
“I have said this before and I will say this again, that ASB stands for Associated Student Body, that means for all,” wrote ASB president Ariyana Kermanizadeh in an open letter to the school newspaper The Californian, which initially broke the story. “After learning about the third verse, the other ASB officers and I thought that this was completely unacceptable and must be removed from the rally.”
The students’ decision only applies to the four annual pep rallies organized by the ASB, and does not affect any other Cal High events, said Elizabeth Graswich, spokeswoman for the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
Thus far, it has only applied to the Jan. 19 pep rally. It is unclear whether the anthem will be played at the next and final pep rally of the year in May.
Not everyone was happy with the decision.
Dennis Fiorentinos, a Cal High senior, noticed the absence of the anthem at last month’s rally, and was upset once he found out that the ASB had opted to discontinue its playing.
“Only a couple of students decided on such a pivotal issue,” he said.
News of the ASB’s anthem decision began spreading earlier this week, and the story has been picked up by national outlets like the Washington Times and Fox News, in addition to Bay Area-wide news organizations.
The controversy comes a year after the school received national attention for incidents of racist graffiti, and now at a time when promoting an inclusive school culture is a priority, members of the leadership class wrote in a message to the Cal High community.
“The decision did not come from a place of disrespect for our great military and country, but rather out of a desire to show respect to those who have been marginalized and alienated,” they wrote.
The third verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is rarely performed, but Kermanizadeh said that didn’t matter. She cited the controversial verse in her open letter:
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and home of the brave.”
“This verse translated, finds joy in the killing of African-Americans,” she wrote.
In opposing the ASB decision, Fiorentinos said that while he understands the problems with the racially charged words, nevertheless most Americans aren’t familiar with the third verse, and that on a deeper level, the national anthem stands for unity and freedom.
Fiorentinos contacted local news outlets to voice his outrage, including KTVU, ABC7, NBC Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle and the East Bay Times. He was scheduled to appear on “Fox and Friends” Thursday at 3 a.m., but the interview was canceled due to the fatal school shooting in Florida.
The Cal High leadership class plans to hold an evening meeting open to all community members to discuss the issue, according to the letter they sent out, with further information on the event to be posted by the end of the week. The date has not yet been announced.
Cal High principal Sarah Cranford deferred comment on the issue to Graswich in the district office.
Graswich said that this would be used as a learning opportunity and a chance to engage in a conversation.
“One of our district priorities is ‘Deliberately prioritize and provide a world-class education where our focus on Inclusion, Cultural Responsiveness and Response to Intervention ensures that each student, employee and family feels safe and respected,'” Graswich said in an email.
“Decisions about rallies are made by the student leaders,” she added. “The students understand that there are objections to their decision and will be using this opportunity to have further dialog about future rallies.”
Maybe they should not sing the 3rd verse. There are plenty of documents around the early 1800s that reference slavery. Sounds like someone on a witch hunt – why don’t the offended kneel during the 3rd verse?? that would work for me. Or ask the military personnel for there input. If this is what higher education is about – how about knowing that there is no such word irregardless or hisself. How many people know what they saying when they say smuck or snafu?? Or ask in a stadium for every one remain standing and sing the 2 and 3rd verses of the star spangled banner. Really????
this must be the very definition of a ‘nothing-burger’. How many even knew that phrase existing? It a hard enough song already, sheesh.
A big mountain out of something few knew about (until they decided) to make it an issue.
Course, this explains the news cameras that were there the other day. Wonder what that was about….
It’s sad to watch the degradation of California. Perhaps the latest effort by the non-coastal counties to secede from the Loony Coast will succeed this time and give those folks some respite from the craziness.
Another example of allowing the inmates to run the asylum.
I don’t know about Cal, but I was at the Las Lomas vs. Acalanes high school basketball game last night in Walnut Creek (was a great game, btw), and it was inspiring and fun to witness the Las Lomas high school band in the stands playing a rousing rendition of our national anthem before the game (and everyone was standing, btw).
Those kids, including the rest of their student section–outstanding.
It’s what it’s all about–you see something like that and you can’t help but think those veterans who gave their lives in wars past so kids like that could be there and have the freedom and joy to perform and then cheer on their team–that’s what the anthem represents, and I’m sure witnessing that from somewhere above makes all those veterans’ souls smile broadly down upon them.
God Bless America.
How can this be allowed when we are in a desperate time to keep God and respect of our country here? If you can’t pledge or want to kneel our dollars should not be in support.
If you feel the need to disrespect our country, feel free to leave. You will never change the believers that want the senseless negativity to stop. We are proud and will stand to in support of our beliefs, the USA and the fight to protect it.
I prey we always include the time to make a difference and do anything to stay on a positive track. The needless fights need to stop.
At a senior night last year a student brought tears of happiness to many. The school was not going to play the national anthem but a student started belting it out then the kids and crowd followed. How can we remove a tribute that means so much to our respecting citizens? I agree with the previous post, If you don’t like it, “feel free to leave”.
It’s my guess that Bob frequently likes to disagree on everything. What can be more important than a minute to stand together in unity? Is it too much to take a moment and show respect for our country and come together with pride? True there are changes and we do not all agree but the anthem is not the place for your fights. It is our chance to stand as one.
With all the fighting going on, it saddens me that any person living in the USA would encourage such negativity and not stand in support to bring us together. It’s shocking to see any school take this away at such a demanding time. We need to slow down and be proud of liberty and justice for all.
Please do not remove the national anthem from the schools or your heart.
I remember as a child in school in the upper mid west United States in the early 1950’s, in music class, we sang “I Wish I Was In Dixie”, “Dixie The Land of Cotton”, “Yellow Rose of Texas” and some others.
From CNN, no less:
“The Star-Spangled Banner” in no way glorifies or celebrates slavery. The middle two verses of Key’s lyric vilify the British enemy in the War of 1812, what Key refers to in Verse 3 as “hirelings and slaves.” This enemy included both whites and blacks, largely British professional soldiers (hirelings) but also the Corps of Colonial Marines (slaves).
The Colonial Marines were escaped black American slaves who joined British forces because of the promise of freedom in return for fighting their former masters.
Fortunately, Britain honored this promise after the war, relocating the former slaves and their families to Halifax and Trinidad. For Key, however, the British mercenaries were scoundrels and the Colonial Marines were traitors who threatened to spark a national insurrection.
The graphic language of Key’s denunciation of this British enemy led to the removal of Verse 3 in sheet music editions of the song in World War I, when the United States and Britain became staunch allies.
Yet in 1814 Key’s lyric honored American soldiers both black and white. “The Star-Spangled Banner” celebrates the heroes who defended Fort McHenry in the face of almost certain defeat against the most powerful gunships of the era. America’s soldiers included mainly whites, but also free and escaped blacks.
Escaped slave William Williams served in the US infantry at Fort McHenry and was killed by a fragment of a British bomb. Another escaped slave, Charles Ball, writes in his memoirs of being among the American soldiers of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla who courageously repelled a night attack and saved the city.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” thus honors American military heroes, black and white, without regard to race. In this respect, “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not racist.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/opinions/star-spangled-banner-criticisms-opinion-clague/index.html
To the students of Cal Hi, what is in the National Anthem or any other part of our history be it in your view right or wrong don’t try to rewrite it. If you disagree with it don’t sing it but don’t try to rewrite it, thats why it’s called history.
Really? Do we need one more reason to teach our kids to be disrespectful?
Last I checked, a large part of the civil war was fought to free the slaves.
Anyone who thinks this is a racially charged anthem needs to read the story about how and when it was written. It is just the opposite of this…it is in support of the slaves and immigrants.
There is simply no agreement among historians about what that verse means. The British army, unlike the US army, used people who were not in it for the cause, but for financial gain or other reasons. “Slave” in that context was a common epithet in the day used to disparage people in that situation. That doesn’t mean that Key didn’t have literal African slaves in mind. We simply don’t know. But picking one side or another simply because you want it to be true isn’t going to solve anything, because the only thing that’s clear is that we don’t know. Arguments by historians one way or another leave out that drawing any conclusion sets aside half the evidence.
That being said, there’s no logical reason that we should sing the Star Spangled Banner before a pep rally any more than we should sing it before a bank or post office or school opens for the day. It’s pretty arbitrary in this day and age to decide that sporting events of all things have anything to do with patriotism or the national anthem when there’s no opposing team from another country.
While there’s no clear evidence that the verse is racist, and no clear evidence that it isn’t, it’s absurd to say that it should be sung in the first place, just because people did it in the past for reasons they couldn’t explain. So whether the verse is racist or not, failing to sing the national anthem isn’t wrong. There was no reason to do it in the first place.
@BobB
“I agree that it’s different, but to me the times to play the national anthem are president’s day…”
The problem with false patriotism is that you can’t celebrate something if you don’t know what you are celebrating. Aside from the fact that people don’t know whether it’s President’s day, Presidents’ Day or Presidents Day, the national holiday does have an official name. So does the state holiday and the Alameda County holiday. In all three cases, it’s called “George Washington’s Birthday.”
If you want to buy a mattress at a discount, that’s fine with me, but it’s nothing to sing about. If you can’t take the time to find out what holiday we are actually celebrating, then don’t tell others how to celebrate it.
It’s the systematic dismantling of our nations values and traditions thats plummeting our society. Folks are more interested in making some kind of statement than they are doing what’s right. And if you have to ask “what’s right”, you are part of the problem.
The slavery referred to in the Anthem is about the American soldiers captured at sea in British attacks on our ships, and impressed into servitude and slavery on British ships. It has nothing to do with African America slavery.
The British justified this because, they said, any one born before the Revolution was a British citizen. It was a major cause of the War of 1812.
Everyone should be reminded about what the national anthem stands for. When Francis Scott Key wrote it he was on a British ship that was holding prisoners and he watched as hundreds of other British ships fired thousands of shots at Fort Henry where the American flag was flying. The flag stood all night while the British tried to make the flag fall to the ground so they could declare victory
When dawn came the flag pole was sitting at an odd angle and when Mr. Key went to Fort Henry there were American bodies holding up the tattered flag because they knew how much it meant to keep the flag from touching the ground. They used their BODIES to hold the flag up, and as they died others would take their place holding the flag up until just the bodies remained supporting the flag pole.
Every time the smoke cleared, “the flag was still there.
All that sacrifice, and all that concern for our country, and it can be easily discarded by some ignorant high school students and their politically motivated advisor?
Where are the American History teachers at Cal High?
I was going to write a long response about how much the anthem means to my son, an Iraq/Afghanistan veteran, who by God’s good grace came home relatively unscathed. I’ve seen the anthem bring tears to his eyes – this brave special ops man, who continues to “serve”, by devoting most of his time to veteran and third-world issues. I was going to write this long response, but I realize that the people who should hear it, don’t care. Just don’t care. They want to appear like they “care”, but only about certain things that they think make them look intelligent, or empathetic, or whatever. Shameful – but what can you expect from these young people who are emboldened by their district’s congressional representative (that would be Swalwell, who continuously, and personally, without anymore information than the rest of us have, disrespects the U.S. president for purely partisan reasons? I guess this is long enough….
BobB, you should take your act on the road. You are hilarious.
Hypocritical Bob again…
You “can think of a lot more important things than getting worked up over a national anthem yet here you are getting worked up again.
Dixie vs. the anthem?? “Nationalism biased me against the practice”. Perhaps you are just biased on everything.
“sing the anthem on holidays” yet “banning at schools is crazy”. “too much of it gets familiar”, you are too familiar on this site with your negativity.
“the institution of presidency deserves respect but the person currently occupying it does not?” He was voted in by the American people. Regardless of your beliefs, it is time to stand in support as a nation. Our people are looking like fools for all the fighting and lack of support. The time to cry about a birth certificate or past is over.
The national anthem has nothing to do with our president and who cares what holiday. Anger management may help you as your fight seems to be about everything. We are all being taught the warning signs about people with such unhappiness. Perhaps you and every school should sing the national anthem loud and proud every possible chance. It’s a moment for us to stand together as a team with pride for all we have and those that fought for our freedom. God bless you.
Have veterans speak to the students in a meet and greet to tell them of their experiences. I think the students will change their mind pretty quick. Most are too young to realize how lucky they are to live in this country and that is why people die all the time trying to get here illegally. Play the anthem but they don’t have to stand or sing-along. Just be respectful.
Absolutely unacceptable
I hope the irony of this isnt lost on the student body – a select few are imposing their position on an entire student body because they felt the anthem wasnt inclusive of all…..hmmmmm. suprised the last name isnt Pelosi
I’m not sure what the national anthem ever had to do with football games or pep rallies in the first place.
Craziness?
I can think of a lot more important things to get worked up over than playing the national anthem at high school football games.
@BobB – its not about football or sports, but re-affirming the importance of nationalism in our youth, so they have respect for our country and grow up keeping a sense of pride and importance on that is important.
It does not mean they have to like every decision, or support every action. In fact, the point is that their ability to disagree with, challenge, etc. our politicians/government stems out of what the national anthem represents people fighting for.
But they do need to show respect for the environment, country, and individuals that fought and continue to fight for those freedoms. It serves as the central common ground to root and unite everyone in regardless of their divergent opinions on other items. Its important to keep that core and reinforce it.
@Pleasanton Parent,
Okay, I’ll just have to disagree. I remember the same kinds of things being said about playing Dixie in the South and insisting people (kids) stand in memory of all the brave confederate soldiers who fought and died for … what? I know the national anthem is different from Dixie, but maybe my experience in the South with these kinds of displays of “nationalism” has biased me against the practice.
It is tradition to play the anthem at large sporting events. It may not seem like a big deal to some people, but its a chance to celebrate in a respectful way our unity. It also makes me feel proud to honor those who gave their life protecting our country, or to remember victims of terrorism whether it was domestic or foreign attacks. Some things are worth standing for a few moments. Frankly, i think allowing students to not play the anthem is mis-guided, over-the edge PC, and sad.
BobB
We are not talking about the south, Dixie in the south, or any southern nationalism.
Clearly the national anthem is different than what youre describing.
@Pleasanton Parent,
I agree that it’s different, but to me the times to play the national anthem are president’s day, memorial day, independence day and the like. Too much of it, and it just gets too familiar. Just my opinion. I also think banning it at school events is crazy.
@ H,
What’s wrong with calling it by any of those names? They aren’t “official” names? Kind of like “forth of July” for Independence Day? Talk about nit picking!
And why not sing the anthem on that day, whatever you want to call it? And why sing or play it before sporting events, and not movies, for example?
Sanity is right, let’s make a statement…..regardless of wrong or right
@youth,
The office, the institution of the presidency deserves respect. The person currently occupying it does not. What proof do we have that he is even an American citizen? Why won’t he release his birth certificate?
@Hypocrite,
But this is serious. We need to know if the President was born in America. If not, his presidency is illegal. This is a very important matter! I saw on the Internet that the president might have been born in a foreign country. Until he produces a real birth certificate, we all have reason to doubt
@Hypocrite,
If he is proved to be not a citizen, then he should be arrested and removed from office!