bounty44 -> RE: Progressive Education (6/4/2016 2:59:21 PM)
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"School sends sheriff to order child to stop sharing Bible verses" [the title's a bit of an exaggeration but still...] quote:
A public school in California ordered a 7-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch – and they dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child’s home to enforce the directive. “This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child,” said Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Counsel attorney representing the first-grader who attends Desert Rose Elementary School in Palmdale. They are also representing his parents, Christina and Jaime Zavala. Mrs. Zavala made it a practice of including a Bible verse and encouraging note in her son’s lunch bag. The boy would tell his friends about the note and read them aloud at the lunch table. It wasn’t long before children asked for copies of the notes and Mrs. Zavala obliged – including a brief note to explain the daily Bible verse. On April 18 a teacher called Mrs. Zavala and said her son would no longer be able to share the Bible verses because he was “not allowed to share such things while at school.” Liberty Counsel said the school would only allow the child to distribute the Bible verses outside the school gate – after the bell rang. They say the teacher told Mrs. Zavala that her son “could no longer read or share Bible verses or stories at lunch” – citing “separation of church and state.” So, Mr. and Mrs. Zavala complied with the school’s clearly unconstitutional edict... But on May 9, the school’s principal decided to implement a complete ban on the Bible verse sharing. Liberty Counsel alleges the boy was ordered to stop handing out notes because “it was against school policy.” The principal told the boy and his father to move to a public sidewalk. They complied with the principal’s demand. It would be just a few hours later – when the Zavala family heard a knock at their front door. “The deputy sheriff said he had been sent by the school,” Liberty Counsel attorney Richard Mast told me. “The deputy went on to tell the parents that the school was worried that someone might be offended by the Bible verses.” Liberty Counsel said the deputy sheriff was not belligerent or threatening. The family was not served with any sort of legal documents. It appeared to be a “friendly” warning. “It was outrageous and should shock the conscious of every freedom-loving American,” Mihet told me. “Apparently all the real criminals have been dealt with in Palmdale – and now they’re going after kids who share Bible verses during lunch time.”... “I would expect something like this to happen in Communist Romania – where I went to elementary school – but cops don’t bully 7-year-olds who want to talk about Jesus in the Land of the Free,” Mihet said. Students do not check their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door, he said. “If students are permitted to pass out Valentine or birthday cards at school or to talk about Superman and Captain America at lunch, they cannot be prohibited from sharing Bible verses and discussing their faith during their free, non-instructional time,” Mihet told me. Liberty Counsel is demanding the school stop its policy of suppressing and censoring student religious speech. If they fail to comply, the school could face a federal lawsuit. And for good measure – we can only hope that Liberty Counsel will use a deputy sheriff to hand deliver the lawsuit to the school’s principal. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/06/03/school-sends-sheriff-to-order-child-to-stop-sharing-bible-verses.html?intcmp=hpbt3 [oh no comrades, fox news!] more: quote:
Liberty Counsel has demanded that Desert Rose Elementary School correct an outrageous violation of a first grader’s constitutional rights. The situation started with an encouraging note and Bible verse from mom Christina Zavala, tucked into a packed lunch for her little boy ("C"). The seven-year-old boy read the note and verse, and showed them to his friends during lunch time at school. Mrs. Zavala’s daily note for her son soon turned into an expectation by the other children during lunch, who excitedly begged C for copies of the notes, which grew to include short stories from the Bible to provide context for the verses. However, when one little girl said "teacher - this is the most beautiful story I’ve ever seen," "separation of church and state" was the response, and the notes were banned from lunchtime distribution. C was told that the school gate was the only location at which he could give the Bible verses to his friends, and only after the bell rang. On April 19, 2016, Mrs. Zavala wrote the school to correct its misinformation, but the only response was that C was reprimanded again, in front of the whole class, and again told to stop talking about religion or sharing his mother’s notes. C returned home in tears. The Zavalas and C complied with the school gate directive, and soon, as many as 15 fellow students looked forward to the after-school Bible notes. However, on May 9, 2016, Principal Melanie Pagliaro approached Mr. Zavala at that location, and demanded that C only hand out the notes on a public sidewalk, far from the exit, off school property. The family immediately complied. Later that day, however, a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff knocked at the door of C's home, demanding that C's note sharing cease altogether because "someone might be offended." C’s family then asked Liberty Counsel to help protect their child's constitutional freedoms. This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child. That the school district enlisted a police officer to intimidate C and his family makes this case even more outrageous. "I would expect something like this to happen in Communist Romania, where I went to elementary school, but cops don't bully 7-year-olds who want to talk about Jesus in the Land of the Free"said Horatio "Harry" Mihet, Esq., Vice President of Legal Affairs & Chief Litigation Counsel of Liberty Counsel. http://lc.org/newsroom/details/school-calls-sheriff-to-stopyearold-from-handing-out-bible-verses-1
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