Christian-rights group claims school muffled teacher

[truthpusher]

http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=3717061&ClientType=Printable

Christian-rights group claims school muffled teacher

RICHMOND, Va. A Christian-rights group says officials at a York County high school deprived a Spanish teacher his freedom of speech and equal protection rights when Christian posters were removed from his classroom when he was out sick.

The Rutherford Institute alleges in a lawsuit that last October Tabb High School officials took down materials, including a poster depicting of George Washington praying at Valley Forge and news articles about President Bush's religious faith, and barred him from putting them back up.

Lee -- who also advises the school's Christian student club -- is asking a federal judge in Norfolk to allow him to rehang the posters and leave them up, saying many teachers post personal and club materials on their walls.

But a county attorney's letter says the posters were properly removed because of their "overtly religious nature of the displays and their narrow focus on only a religious point of view."

link to story: http://www.wavy.com/global/story.asp?s=3717061&ClientType=Printable

[opihimoimoi]

1. So There....take those posters and hang them in church

Go enlist....

[tnlefty]

6. *snarf* I needed a chuckle!

So there...go enlist, LOL

[politicaholic]

2. "Lee - who can't leave being an asshole at home - ...."

"decided to waste tax payer's money on crap he knew was obviously a violation, but decided to play stupid."

He should be fired because of his obvious display of being too damn stupid to teach kids.

[Zenlitened]

3. Man, the Rutherforld lawyers are getting desperate, aren't they?

They comb the countryside looking for things to sue over, and this is the best they can come up with?

Of course, absence of evidence won't stop them from pounding away at the "christians're bein' per-see-cuted" nonense they feed on.

:eyes:

[VegasWolf]

4. These Christian protesters should go enlist in the Army if they want to

do good.

[HockeyMom]

5. Amazing

The Jewish staff at the school where I used to work got very upset when somebody tried to put up a Christmas Tree picture with hanging ornaments containing everybody's name written on them.

They did not want their names on a Christmas tree. So, rather than going around asking who was Jewish and putting up a Menorah with their names, it was decided to just hang up Snowflakes with the entire staff's names.

I guess these people just ASSUME that everyone is CHRISTIAN???

[ShockediSay]

7. And somebody should warn Sen Santorum

the liberals seem to have made another priest "do it." This time it was in NYC in St Patrick's of all places.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/nyregion/12rector.html


"Accusation of an Affair Leads Priest to Resign

The rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Msgr. Eugene V. Clark, resigned yesterday amid accusations that he was having an affair with his longtime personal secretary, a married woman who is 33 years his junior."

The husband of the married woman filed court papers alleging the relationship as part of his divorce case against his wife, who has worked for Monsignor Clark for more than 25 years. "Since then, newspapers and newscasts have carried videotape images provided by Mr. DeFilippo that show Monsignor Clark, 79, and Ms. DeFilippo, 46, entering a motel in the Hamptons last month and walking out five
hours later in different clothing." (Guess the rector wrecked the marriage.)

Rick Santorum better be on guard. Seems those pesky liberals who make priests "do it" are getting closer and closer to his state of Pennsylvania.

[raising2moredems]

8. Time for bibleboy and biblegirl to read the d#%$ book

Doesn't it state, in pretty plain English (preferred language of bigots everywhere), paraphrase:
that if one truly believes, what others say and do should not matter?
Guess they can't be hypochristians without their props.

[Massacure]

9. I can see the teacher's point of view with Washington praying

Valley Forge was a very harsh winter, and faith can be incorporated into telling the story of it.

The thing religious articles about Bush smell of bushit though. A story cannot be told about real life events until those events have taken place. Bush's presidency is far from done, and the debates about it are still going on.

[Shipwack]

10. I agree...

Faith in adverstiy can be important, and if you want a complete picture of Washington and his times, you have to talk about religion. We need to get along with different points of view,not necessarily hide them.

I personally have no problem with a picture of Washington praying, though the problem with allowing that is that there will be those who'll want to take things one step farther...

As for the Bush articles... hmmm. I don't like them, but I can't come up with a reason other than my ardent disgust with the man and all he does, so I might be allowing that to cloud my opinion. If I thought that they were honestly there to show an aspect of his personality or how he wants to be percieved, I wouldn't mind. I suspect, however, they're there more as "coercion"... "look, our dear leader prays! He's a good man! Praying is -good-, right?"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. This is a Spanish teacher's classroom

If he wanted to put up scenes of people praying or a view of a cathedral in a Spanish-speaking country as part of an exhibit on daily life there, no problem.

Customarily the exhibits in a teacher's classroom have something to do with the subject being taught there. When I taught Japanese at a private college loosely related to a Protestant denomination, my bulletin board featured pictures of Japan and news articles about events in Japan, not scenes from American history.

For a Spanish teacher to put up scenes of George Washington (not Simon Bolivar, not Father Hidalgo) praying and articles about "Christianity" in the life of George Bush (not some Latin leader--hey, Teacher, how about an article on liberation theology/ :evilgrin: ) smacks of subliminal proselytizing.

I repeat, what is a picture of George Washington doing in a Spanish teacher's classroom?

[Shipwack]

12. Good point...

I misread the article, and thought it was a "Hispanic teacher", not a teacher of Spanish...

[daleo]

14. To be fair, there should be pictures of British commanders praying too

Then the children could see how faith in action really works.

[onager]

17. Washington? Possible, but not likely.

There are all sorts of stories about George Washington promoting religion, and most of them have about as much veracity as the one about George chucking that silver dollar across the river.

Craptaculous grammar-school fictions and Fundie propaganda aside, Washington simply did not go around engaging in showy religious displays. He spent his life as a fairly plain-spoken farmer and soldier, and judging by the real historical record, generally conducted himself accordingly.

For example, we DO know exactly what Washington said at one critical moment in the war, but I don't think the Fundies will be bragging about it. None of the witnesses ever forgot Washington's quote, so it has been happily preserved for us.

It was Xmas Eve 1775, and Washington's army was preparing for what could have easily been a suicide mission: crossing the icy Delaware River to attack a large formation of German mercenaries working for the British.

Washington made the trip in a small rowboat with his artillery chief, the former bookseller Henry Knox--a man so large he was nicknamed "Knox The Ox."

As he got in, Washington said: "Shift that fat ass over, Henry. But carefully, or you'll swamp the damned boat."

[Demeter]

13. I Would Have Fired Him, Myself

for conduct unbecoming a public school teacher. Really! Do these people have no ego boundaries whatsoever?

[knitter4democracy]

15. That's not allowed, and he knew it.

I was trained to be a teacher at a Christian college, and we often talked about just how far anyone could go. Interesting thing was, most of us weren't comfortable talking about our faith in the public schools and did not unless it were after school and the student initiated it.

You're allowed a personal Bible in your desk but not posters or anything that could be used as instructional material. If he feels that strongly, I know several Catholic and other Christian high schools that are always looking for Spanish teachers.

[sakabatou]

16. "...news articles about President Bush's religious faith..."

Huwah? I thought he had no faith but it in the the good and almighty dollar.