Eaton High School reinstates pledge starting 2017

By Everet Slaughenhaupt

Eaton High School has gone without saying the Pledge of Allegiance since 2002. Though it was never daily, it just eventually stopped. But this has changed. Gavin Huckaby  started a petition to have the Pledge said over the intercom. Huckaby said that Andrew Jorgenson, a civics teacher at Eaton High School, gave him the idea for a petition, and Doug Preston, another civics teacher at the school, helped him in improving it. Huckaby said, “I didn’t like how they didn’t say the pledge. I’m used to doing it in scouts, and also doing it in school everyday.” He wanted change, and he got it. This Monday, January 9, Eaton High School said the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time since 2002. Huckaby also said, “I knew that we didn’t do it… then I thought, wait, how could I maybe start this? And then Jorgenson, Mr. Jorgenson, helped me.”

But, it wasn’t just out of the fact that saying the Pledge of Allegiance was a habit for Huckaby. He said, “…We need to show respect to our country and our country’s history. You should have a choice to do it, but I think that in a government building it should be required to be said… At least for children, because they need to know this stuff. If they don’t know the pledge, that is not good, because that means they don’t know history. And if they don’t know history, it will repeat itself.” Principal Mark Naill said that the morning of the 9 Gavin Huckaby will start the weekly practice off by saying the Pledge over the intercom, and he has Gavin Huckaby has now done this successfully.