'God Bless America' tribute to 9/11 first responders to be removed from school's tradition

Rather than face a costly and time-consuming legal battle, Haddon Heights Elementary School decided to work with parents.

A New Jersey elementary school has decided to stop the traditional recitation of "God Bless America" following the Pledge of Allegiance each morning.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Haddon Heights Elementary School habitually said "God Bless America" after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and the school's principal, Sam Sassano, maintains it was not promoted or mandatory.

"It never, to us, invoked any type of religious intentions," he told KYW Newsradio. "It was basically a patriotic gesture that the boys and girls were doing."

He added that it was a way to honor first responders following 9/11.

Sassano said the ACLU sent the school board attorney a letter claiming the recitation of "God Bless America" is unconstitutional.

The school decided to avoid a legal battle and Sassano decided to send an email to parents stating the school would find an alternate way of honoring 9/11 victims and first responders.

In a similar incident dating back to May last year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the daily recitation of the pledge of allegiance, including the words, "under God," in public schools is not in violation of the Massachusetts Constitution, nor does it discriminate against atheists as one family claimed it did.

Stepping further back, in 2010, an atheist family claimed the pledge of allegiance violated constitutional rights.

The battle continued until last year, when a lower court judge ruled "under God" did not violate anti-discrimination policies or state laws. When the family appealed, they again lost.

In its decision, the high court wrote, "Although the words 'under God' undeniably have a religious tinge ... The pledge, notwithstanding its reference to God, is a fundamentally patriotic exercise, not a religious one."

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