A San Ramon high school has decided to no longer include the national anthem as part of their pep rallies.
The decision was made by a leadership class at California High School, citing a recent racial controversy at a school where vandals wrote "whites" and "colored" in the bathrooms.
The school's newspaper later clarified that the decision was mostly aimed at the third verse of the song that are considered to be racist.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Many felt offended and pushed groups like the NAACP to have the anthem banned all together.
Associated Student Body president Ariyana Kermanizadeh issued a letter to students after the discussion was spurred after the anthem wasn't used at a recent rally.