Quote:A Georgia school planned to drop using the Pledge of Allegiance and replaced it with a school chant, but it later backtracked, it said in a statement, while citing “miscommunication.”

Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School said Aug. 9 the school would do away with the pledge in favor of the “Wolf Pack Chant.”

“Students will continue to lead the meeting by asking our community to stand to participate in our Wolf Pack Chant together. Students will also be given the opportunity to say the pledge at another point during the school day within their classroom,” the school’s elementary campus president, Lara Zelski, said in a statement, according to Fox News on Aug. 9. Her statement was deleted from the school’s website.

In another, later statement on Aug. 9, the school said it had reversed course, saying it “will continue to provide students with an opportunity to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each school day.”

“However, it appears there was some miscommunication and inconsistency in the rollout. Starting next week, we will return to our original format and provide our students with the opportunity to recite the pledge during the all-school morning meeting,” the statement said.

“We support our students in their growth and see it as our duty as educators to respect their First Amendment rights,” the statement said.

Superintendent Morcease J. Beasley of Clayton County told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Students are offered the opportunity to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. If they choose to participate or not is their individual and constitutional right and the reason the flag of the United States of America exists. Anything that removes their right to choose to participate as their conscience dictates, in my opinion, is un-American and immoral.”

After news broke that the pledge would be scrapped, the school received heavy criticism on social media.