Superintendent apologizes for ‘God’ omission in Pledge of Allegiance at Dinuba school

A Tulare County school district has apologized for one of its teachers omitting words from the Pledge of Allegiance.

A parent at Wilson Elementary School in Dinuba wrote about the omission in a nowdeleted social media post. The teacher reportedly left out, “One nation, under God,” while leading the pledge for students on Monday.

In a statement shared with The Bee, Dinuba Unified School

District Superintendent Joe Hernandez said the teacher “inadvertently left out an important portion” of the pledge.

“A parent volunteer posted their concern about the omission on social media,” Hernandez said. “The teacher has since spoken to the parent and apologized for the omission and the posting has been removed by the parent. “Dinuba Unified

takes great pride in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and modeling our civic duties and responsibilities. We sincerely apologize to anyone who may have been offended by the omission.”

The teacher was not named by the district. Dinuba Unified is using distance learning and doesn’t have any in-person classes at this time.

Wilson Elementary has 600 students from kindergarten through sixth grade, according to its website. “Under God” was

added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. The pledge has spurred some lawsuits in recent history, including one on behalf of an Indiana boy in 2017 who was allegedly disciplined for not standing during its recital.

Hernandez did not respond to follow-up questions from The Bee on Tuesday, including about what Dinuba Unified’s policy is regarding the Pledge of Allegiance.

The pledge has been the subject of more controversy this month, including a misleading accusation that “under God” was removed during the pledge at the Democratic National Convention. All the words were included in its central programming, but were left out of two caucus meetings before the evening conventions started -- Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly, and the LGBTQ Caucus -- which weren’t part of the prime-time convention broadcasts, the Associated Press reported.