TN: Schools defend decision on “God” posters
We read:
"School officials accused of censoring religious speech on event posters at a Wilson County elementary school say they didn't order that words like "In God We Trust" be covered up before they were hung in the lobby.
After a judge found in 2006 that the Wilson County School Board wrongly promoted Christianity, the school system was faced with what it deemed a tough call: how to handle posters from a Christian parents group using Bible verses and religious phrases to promote an event.
So when the group, called Praying Parents, asked for permission to hang posters for the upcoming "See You At The Pole" prayer event last September, school officials told the group that the posters weren't acceptable. And the school board was sued, accused of violating the Constitutional rights of the group they were deemed to initially favor.
The Alliance Defense Fund, on behalf of four families, filed suit in U.S. District Court in March, claiming that the school board censored posters for a student-led prayer event. They asked a federal judge to stop the school board from dictating what words could be used on posters for future events, like the National Day of Prayer coming up in May. The signs they wanted to hang at the Mt. Juliet school in September had phrases like "In God We Trust," "God Bless America" and Bible verses. They also included a disclaimer, saying that the event was student led, not school endorsed.
Source
9 comments:
Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.
The school was going to get sued either way. Censor, and the Christians sue. Don't censor, and get sued by the anti-religious groups.
This is another example of how institutions are forced to over-react because of the rampant spread of the insidious virus known as political correctness.
Wow, I would hate to be on that school board.... Whatever happened to if you don't like it, don't read it. If I don't like or disapprove of a poster or book or radio program or tv program I simply don't read, listen and watch it. You could argue that being in a school you have a captive audiance but if we removed everything from schools that someone disagreed with the schools would all be empty.
South Park did a Christmas episode years ago in which the town removed everything that offended someone, they were left with nothing.That's where we are headed.
Stan B - Stalin's politics were inspired by the Czarist-headed Christian religion he studied at the priest-seminary he attended. Hitler used/manipulated the Christian religion of his country, and the Nazis had religious insignia referring to God.
The Constitution grants us Freedom "of" Religion, not Freedom "from" Religion.
A small nit…
The Constitution doesn't "grant" rights, it recognizes inherent rights.
This is exactly why a school voucher system needs to be in place. If you are going to have a bunch of different people forced into the same space and told they have to get along or else, you're always going to run into these sorts of issues.
If, however, the voucher system were in place everywhere and parents across the land could choose which schools they want to send their children to, this could make it much easier for schools to get away from a one-size-fits-all policy and start creating a space where certain activities can be denounced while others can be celebrated.
I'm not saying I like the voucher idea, in fact the idea of the state involved in education is something I am entirely opposed to. If you can't afford to do things like send your children to school, get them shots, and essentially take care of them, what are you doing having kids in the first place? But that's another topic.
Also, we'd have to figure out a way to wrest control of the educational system from the government.
Get the government to give up control of education, the single most powerfull influence on the minds of young impressionable children? Fat chance. The only hope is active and vocal involvement of parents in the education of their children and oversight of the schools.
Give parents oversight of schools and their childrens educations? (LOL) Where do you think you are, in a free country?
The public education system in this country is doing exactly what it is intended to do, corrupt, indoctrinate, and manipulate America's young.
"To conquer a nation from within, you must first control the minds of it's young".... Karl Marx
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