The sixth student arrested in Florida after the refusal to participate in Pledge of Allegiance led to a confrontation

February 18, 2019, 04:30 GMT

By Tim Stelloh

A sixth Florida student was arrested after his refusal to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance turned into a clash with police and school officials, officials said.

On February 4, the unidentified boy was accused of disrupting the school's operation and of having resisted a policeman without violence, the Lakeland Police Department said in a statement. press.

A local newspaper, Bay News 9, reported that the confrontation had begun after Chilian Law Academy Middle Academy student near Tampa had labeled the flag as racist and qualified the national anthem as 39; offensive.

Quoting a statement provided to the Polk School District by the boy's acting teacher, the station reported that the teacher had asked him, "Why, if it was so serious here, he would not have gone to live elsewhere."

"They brought me here," the boy replied, the statement said.

After the teacher told him that he could "always go back", she called the school office "because I did not want to continue dealing with him," reported the station.

The district did not respond to a request for comment Sunday, but a school spokesman told Ledger, a local newspaper, that students are not required to partake in the promise.

Spokesperson Kyle Kennedy told the paper that the teacher, Ana Alvarez, was not aware of this policy and would no longer work with the district.

The boy's mother, Dhakira Talbot, could not immediately respond to an interview request on Sunday, but told Bay News 9 that Alvarez's answer was "wrong".

"It was out of place," Talbot said, according to the station. "If she had the impression that there was a problem with the fact that my son was not defending the flag, she should have solved this problem differently."

After the beginning of the confrontation, the school's senior student tried in vain to calm the student by asking him to leave the class 20 times, the police said.

"The school resource officer then intervened and asked the student to leave the classroom and he refused," said the department. "The student left the classroom and created another disturbance and uttered threats while he was escorted to the office."

According to Bay News 9, the student denied uttering threats.

The Lakeland Police Department said in a statement that the boy had not been arrested for refusing to appear or recite the oath of allegiance. "This arrest was based on the student's choice to disrupt the class, to threaten and resist the efforts of the officer to leave him."

"I want the charges removed and the school held responsible for what happened because it should not have been treated the way it was," Talbot said.