After years of absence, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance returns to Gorham High School.

Gorham School Committee Wednesday approved providing an opportunity for students to say the Pledge in classrooms during daily announcements on the intercom. The decision came at a meeting attended by parents, students,military veterans and school administrators.

Suzanne Ennis, a parent and substitute teacher, raised the Pledge issue last month when she presented a citizens’ petition with 300 signatures.

“We’re very pleased that the superintendent and School Committee were so responsive to the will of the people,” Ennis said following Wednesday’s meeting.

The School Committee decision also drew plaudits from the head of a Maine veterans’ organization. “It’s in the classroom where it should be,” said Gorham resident Bob Bernard, state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Gorham High School Principal Chris Record said Thursday that the Pledge would begin on Monday, Jan. 26, with the beginning of the second semester. Under law, students can’t be forced to recite the Pledge or be penalized for not saying it.

The School Committee received a recommendation from the high school’s School Council that would have opened the school auditorium each morning for students and teachers who wanted to say the Pledge. In November, the School Council rejected a proposal by Superintendent Ted Sharp that the Pledge be said in classrooms.

But, Wednesday the School Committee, with a 6-1 vote (Kathy Garrard opposed) favored Sharp’s proposal. “I support the School Council proposal,” Garrard said.

The Pledge was already recited in other Gorham schools, kindergarten through eighth grade.

“People are passionate about this,” said Dennis Libby, chairman of the School Committee.

School officials had allowed the School Council input on the Pledge issue as a lesson in the democratic process. But Gorham resident Alan Reed, a member of Gorham Memorial Post 10879 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said Sharp had the power to make the decision.

“You got people’s blood pressure up,” Reed said about the public emotion. “The end result is good.”

Before its Pledge vote, the School Committee asked Record, who stepped to the public podium, about whether announcements on the intercom were daily at the school. Record confirmed announcements were each day.

But the School Committee didn’t open discussion about the Pledge to the public. Don Hadley, senior vice commander of the VFW post in Portland, said “that surprised me” about the public not having an opportunity to be heard.

It also surprised a former Gorham School Committee member, Steve Morin, who said the Pledge was an important issue.

“I credit the School Committee for making the right decision,” Morin said.