The ACLU claims to support freedom (religious and otherwise), and in the past has advocated on behalf of jihadists, the Westboro homophobic hate-mongers, and child pornography, and opposed a bill that would require all employees of abortion mills to report suspected cases of sexual abuse. Land of the free, baby!
ACLU’s website states:
Religious freedom is a fundamental human right that is guaranteed by the First Amendment's Free Exercise and Establishment clauses. It encompasses not only the right to believe (or not to believe), but also the right to express and to manifest religious beliefs.
Unless expressing said religious freedom is in the form of a prayer meeting on school grounds, held outside of school hours, and is open to all and optional to attend.
A Baltimore public school is experiencing the wrath of the ACLU after inviting students, parents, and teachers to attend an optional Saturday morning meeting to pray for the students to pass their upcoming standardized tests. Principal Jael Yon of Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School was asked by parents to hold Saturday classes and the prayer meeting in preparation for the Maryland School Assessments. In an attempt to serve the needs of her students, this “exceptional principal” made it happen.
The ACLU claims that this is a clear violation of the Constitution, which prohibits organized prayer in public school settings. I don’t remember that part of the Constitution ... it must be next to the Right to Privacy. Nevertheless, the courts have ruled upon it and banned teachers from praying with their students, even if they share the same faith and are in an optional enrichment class outside of school hours.
This is not an imposition of religion on anyone. The classes were not limited to Christians, or even only to those that attended the prayer meeting. Unless someone can produce some evidence for me proving that Principal Yon denied a request from Muslim/Jewish/Buddhist/insert-religion-of-choice parents requesting she organize a prayer meeting for them, I don’t see what the big deal is.
If it's such a big deal, I have a simple solution: School vouchers. Let the parents decide where their children should be educated. Let them find schools that are better tailored to their family’s needs and desires. Our one-size-fits-all approach to education is not working.
School choice works. Let the parents, not zip codes, determine where their children will learn. When families can pick the educational environment best for their children, the ACLU can spend its resources in better ways than attacking a principal trying to accommodate parents’ wishes and promote school morale.
Photo via Glenna Barlow/Flickr
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Comments 11
Good for this school!! The key word is "OPTIONAL"!!! The ACLU obviously missed this part. No one is forcing anyone to attend the prayer meeting and if you don't want to , stay home and shut up about it. Freedom OF religion doesn't mean freedom FROM religion.
Jenny, I think you're missing the point. School "sponsored". Thats what the ACLU has a problem with. Had the parents organized it completely separate and merely invited the principal that would have been different. The principal herself endorsed this as an official school event. Thats what the ACLU had a problem with, the appearance that the school was endorsing any particular religion. There are student led clubs all the time dealing with religion. However, I think it's more splitting hairs than anything, I don't think it should be a problem the principal endorsing a prayer meeting as long as she doesnt treat those of other religions differently.
ACLU needs to stop wasting their time and resources on OPTIONAL prayer meetings and the like and start concerning themselves with ACTUAL civil rights violations - which there are planty of here in America.
School sponsored means that they broke the rules. Also, you really need to stop talking about things you know nothing of. Sure in your upper-middle class 'fantasy" home it would be easy for you to simply take your voucher and drive your kids to another school. In reality some parents simply have to settle with whatever school district they end up at and try to make the best of it. It would be nice if i had been able to go to a different school with textbooks from this century but the closest other school was about 50 miles away. My friend would have loved to go to high school with people who didn't think stabbing a person in the hallway was good fun, but considering that all the schools in her area were like that and her parents couldn't afford to send her to a fancy private school she had to make due. Vouchers are nice in theory, but in real life they're unpractical.
Good article, comments were the irritating part. How do people judge on this without knowing that the school may or may not have been the only building available or practical for the prayer meeting, And who cares if there is prayer in that meeting or not? Any other religion is perfectly able to ask for a meeting and any other group is. Seperation of church and state does not mean, pray in a secret dark sound proof room where no one can hear and be offended.
Crystal, what the ACLU is in a tizzy over is that it was perceived as school sponsored since fliers for the prayer meeting were okayed by the principal and handed out by teachers. Schools hold church services all the time, but not at the behest of the district. The churchs are treated like any other organization seeking to use the schools buildings.
Exactly what Sassy said.
Replace all christian references with Muslim ones and decide if you would have a problem with it. We do not fund religion with tax dollars in this country.
The problem here was the Principal inviting everyone to the event and running it. If this had been an event run by the Federation of Christian Athletes and it was student led it would be legal.
Good article, comments were the irritating part. How do people judge on this without knowing that the school may or may not have been the only building available or practical for the prayer meeting, And who cares if there is prayer in that meeting or not? Any other religion is perfectly able to ask for a meeting and any other group is. Seperation of church and state does not mean, pray in a secret dark sound proof room where no one can hear and be offended.
/////funny, isn't that was Jesus said to do? Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And did anyone catch the funny that they were supposed to pray to do well on tests? Not for the people suffering in (put any 3rd world country here) or for the kids dying of hunger even in this country (although usually by abusive parents). No, they were parying about acing tests. Ya, cause hard work and studing won't get you there....God's worrying about how Susie does on her test.