The Pledge of Allegiance is preceded by a “land acknowledgement / BLM” statement in at least one Roseville public school.
All Minnesota public and charter schools are required by law to lead students in reciting the pledge at least one time each week. While Roseville schools maintain compliance with this policy, at least one elementary school in the district has inserted politically charged language into what is usually a brief moment of patriotism.
A photograph taken recently in a Roseville elementary classroom shows that the following affirmation of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) takes place before students turn to the flag.
The text preceding the pledge reads:
“Today we say the pledge of allegiance, recognizing that we may each feel differently about our role and place in this nation. We recognize that the land we are on was seized from the Dakota People. We recognize and affirm [that] the lives of our Black, Indigenous and People of Color Matter. Each of us is a unique and contributing member of our school community.”
The Roseville School District, ISD 623, has also formally upheld since 2019 that their “schools are located on land seized from the Dakota people.” Despite this, the district does not seem to have made any meaningful attempt to give the land back.
Further, education expert Katherine Kersten with the Center of the American Experiment says the US didn’t even steal land from the Dakota people. “The ‘land acknowledgment’ statement that Roseville students are reportedly being required to recite is historically false,” she reports. “In reality, the Dakota seized the land in question from the Iowa and Oto tribes around 1700, killing or enslaving their opponents, while the U.S. government later negotiated with the Dakota and paid them for the land.”
“Worse yet,” she continues, “the statement essentially compels vulnerable children to pledge allegiance to a divisive left-wing ideology that instructs them to view their fellow American citizens, first and foremost, as members of racial groups, and only secondarily as individual human beings.”
The pre-pledge BLM affirmation is not ISD 623’s only controversial practice. Attorney and mother Kofi Montzka called out the district’s board at the beginning of this school year after Roseville schools reportedly “segregated kids based by race” to talk about George Floyd’s death.
Very shortly before that a Roseville principal declared the traditional male/female dichotomy to be “bigoted bullshit.”
Just last month, the Roseville School Board voted to endorse the views of a left wing parent group and is now promoting the views of that group on the district website.
Alpha News reached out to Roseville public schools last week but did not receive a response.
