Harrington / Globe photo

Arlington police are investigating threatening messages sent to multiple School Committee members Wednesday, June 29, in response to a controversy surrounding the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in the schools,Boston.com reported.

Acting Capt. Robert Bongiorno would not specify which committee members the messages were directed toward, but he said some of the e-mail messages were anti-Semitic.

Late Wednesday afternoon school officials targeted what they said were incorrect reports by Fox News that the School Committee had banned the pledge of Allegiance in Arlington schools.

“It is unfortunate that the national media has chosen to distort this very serious debate in a manner, which so badly misinforms the public,” said School Committee Chairman Joseph Curro in a press release Wednesday. “Recent reports have done little to present the facts about our school system and our community, and have been seized upon by many people throughout the country to target our dedicated school leaders with unwarranted hate mail and threats.”

As 17-year-old Sean Harrington plans to stick to his vow to have the Pledge of Allegiance heard daily at Arlington schools, high school Principal Charles Skidmore has offered a compromise, The Boston Globe reported June 30.

After the School Committee voted 3-3 June 22 about having a recording of the Pledge played before classes daily, Skidmore told The Globe June 29 he would lead the Pledge in the lobby of Arlington High School every morning five minutes before school begins.

Harrington told the newspaper that he wants the Pledge said in all classrooms and that saying it in the AHS lobby would work for students, who would have to hurry to class. More >>

In an e-mail to parents and guardians June 30, Charles Skidmore, principal at Arlington High School, offered further explanation of his compromise:

"I am sure by now that many of you have seen or heard the controversy about the fact that we do not recite the Pledge Of Allegiance daily at the high school. A daily recitation had not been done at AHS for quite some time, nor has it been done in any of the high schools I have worked in over the past thirty years.

"I would like to re-introduce the pledge to the high school. My plan is to start with the Pledge voluntarily said at 7:55 in the Main Lobby. We would then to move it forward to the classrooms via the loudspeaker after all students and teachers have had a chance to talk about appropriate behavior for those who do and don’t participate in the pledge. I want the Pledge Of Allegiance to be meaningful to our students, and I think giving students and teachers time to discuss the pledge as a community is the way to try to  make it not a rote recitation but meaningful as it should be.

"I have heard from many people around the country by phone, fax, and email. What I would really love, is to hear from you and your children, the students of AHS, about this issue.

"I feel terrible that somehow this past protocol has been projected, especially onto the teachers at the high school and the students, as not wanting to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I am hopeful that the District’s press release will correct some of the inaccuracies related to this story, and I genuinely apologize if I have caused any of you any discomfort."

June 23: School Committee rejects pitch for Pledge, despite tears |
June 30: School officials call some news reports inaccurate