This has been a thing in the USA for a long time hasn't it? Iirc, they have (legally not mandatory, but functionally mandatory) pledges at the start of every school day right?
Participation is never mandatory and retaliation or forcing the pledge is an invitation for an expensive civil rights suit.
Even if it's not strictly "mandatory" there can be substantial pressure in conservative areas. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095381
I don’t have a list of schools for you.
Sure peer pressure can be a thing (at the school I went to you would have been bullied for doing the pledge), but it is pretty firmly established law that a student has every right to not participate and not be pressured to participate by public school staff.
In my case the pressure came from my teachers and the principal. I never got in any official trouble but I was sent to the principal's office for refusing to say it and it required a phone call with my dad for them to begrudgingly let me continue to not say it.
I know some that don't, it's not announced that they don't and as long as nobody notices I don't think anyone local really cares.
I was only 9 the first time it happened but even back then it felt really weird.
Yes, and it doesn't make it any less cult-like.