12-09-2011, 01:06 PM
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Sumner schools to stop religious activities
It just astounds me that this sort of blatant 1st Amendment violation still goes on today, but it's no surprise that it happened in the benighted hamlet of Tennessee (where they believe in religious freedom for everyone....except Muslims, Jews, atheists, and everyone else who isn't the right sort of Christian). More details at the link:
Quote:
Sumner schools to stop religious activities | The Tennessean | tennessean.com
The Sumner County Board of Education settled a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union over teacher-led prayer and other religious activity in public schools.
This is the third time in three years that the ACLU has taken a Middle Tennessee school district to court over religion. The Sumner suit was filed in May on behalf of nine students who complained that teachers were leading prayer in classrooms, religious groups were distributing Bibles, school events were being held in churches, and schools were allowing local churches to send youth ministers into the lunchrooms to preach to children, unsupervised.
“We hope that this signed agreement will give pause to school systems across Tennessee,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU-Tennessee. “Religious freedom is one of the core values of our country, and religious freedom needs to be respected.”
At a closed executive session Monday night, the Sumner school board hammered out a settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. From now on, teachers will not be allowed to pray with students, lead Bible study on school grounds, display crosses or other religious imagery in the classroom or otherwise engage in religious activities on public school property. Church youth ministers will no longer have access to the lunchrooms, unless they’re meeting with their own children.
The school board’s main interest, members said, was ensuring that students would still be free to practice and express their own religious beliefs. They will — as always — be free to pray at school, study the Bible during their lunch breaks and join student religious groups.
The school board’s attorney saw the settlement as a victory of sorts as well. The settlement allows Sumner to continue using church property for things like high school graduations and makes it clear that students are still free to pray in school and engage in religious activities like prayers around the school flagpole; teachers, meanwhile are free to hold on to their own faith, as long as they don’t discuss it with students during the school day.
“What often happens after these kinds of lawsuits is that the ACLU will push far into the realm of restricting religion,” said David French, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, who represented the school board. “Our goal is to make sure the ACLU attack did not result in extraordinarily draconian restrictions that violated free speech rights of students and teachers.”
The ACLU counters that student and teacher rights were the reason they brought the suit in the first place. The ACLU, Weinberg said, has no problem with students praying.
“As long as there are exams and athletic events, there will be prayer in schools,” Weinberg said. “Students certainly have the right to pray, but schools should not sponsor religious activities.”
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It's also a blatant lie for the American Center for Law and Justice to claim that "that the ACLU will push far into the realm of restricting religion", especially since the ACLU sides with the ACLJ on religious freedom issues.
Last edited by skrekk; 12-09-2011 at 01:13 PM..
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