this is really taking off here...letters to the editor are flying fast and furious....people in town are taking sides..this is high drama in this small town..almost as much fun to watch as the case of the Bloomingdale MI public schools hanging a picture of Jesus in the hallways a few years ago and the Mi ACLU suing them.... (they lost).
anyway here is the latest breaking from near where I live and the locals are all a twitter...they are handwringing and screaming at each other in letter after letter after letter... I just cant believe they thought they could get away with this.
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'The ACLU of Michigan has sent a letter (PDF here) to the superintendent of South Haven Public Schools asking the school to change their policy of allowing a local youth minister and lunchroom volunteer to proselytize students in the lunchroom during school hours.
The letter, sent to superintendent Robert Black, urges the school to prevent Mike Dubbink, the youth minister at Hope Reformed Church in South Haven, from recruiting students for his church and speaking to them about religion while acting as a lunchroom volunteer at the middle and high schools.'
'During one incident, the ACLU has learned that the youth minister and the South Haven High School Assistant Principal forced a student into an isolated room and attempted to pressure the student to pay for a church-based retreat that the student signed up for during school hours, but did not attend. During this ordeal, the student was not permitted to call his parents and in fact, his parents were never notified that he signed up for the church retreat.
In the letter, the ACLU of Michigan urged the superintendent "to assure that all students' constitutional rights are protected by putting an end to the unlawful practice of permitting and/or encouraging religious leaders to proselytize students at South Haven Schools."
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/01/aclu_protests_lunchtime_prosel.php