It’s pretty funny to think that the school immediately couldn’t see the humour in the situation but their administrations have failed to notice that forcing children to recite the pledge is not educational. Does an eight year old really fully understand the concepts of a nation, government, allegiance, freedom of expression? (If so, why can’t they vote?) But anyway, I digress.
The reason I’m posting is to point out a contribution from one of the commentors wo says:

You might find West Virginia St. Bd. of Ed. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) to be interesting reading. There, the Supreme Court held that it’s unconstitutional for the government to require children to recite the pledge or salute the flag. Note that this was during the height of WW2, and the Court felt that one of the essential things that seperated us from our enemies then was that we could not require it. Note also that it has nothing to do with religious belief (though it was brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses), and that it predates the addition of the words ‘under God.’ Reciting a different pledge might be grounds for punishment if it’s disruptive. Doing nothing is protected, however. You can google for the opinion, or read it here:

Wikipedia has a great article on the history of the pledge - or you could Google it and find some ‘interesting’ sites..