Teen who sits during Pledge being withdrawn from school

BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (AP) - The mother of a suburban Chicago high school student who has been sitting during the Pledge of Allegiance says she is withdrawing her son from the school because of threats and harassment.

The Daily Southtown reports (http://trib.in/2creJPm) Kelley Porter Turner says she is pulling her 15-year-old son, Shemar, out of Eisenhower High School in Blue Island and plans to enroll him in an online charter school. Turner says her son is being called names as he walks the halls of the school.

The 15-year-old Shemar says he began sitting out the Pledge on Aug. 26, to protest police killings of blacks.

A Community High School District 218 spokesman declined to confirm or comment on Porter Turner's claims her son had been bullied. Superintendent Ty Harting says students aren't required to stand for, or recite, the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Information from: Southtown Star, http://southtownstar.chicagotribune.com/