Texas School District Bans Christmas Colors

Maranatha Christian Journal ^ | December 16, 2004

[RayChuang88]

(MCNS)--Attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today against the Plano Independent School District for a discriminatory policy that censors the Christmas religious expression of students and their parents.

“The policy is a perfect example of politically correct extremism,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb.

“School officials have gone so far as to prohibit students from wearing red and green at their ‘winter break’ parties because they claim they are Christmas colors. Even the plates and napkins must be white. The district’s policy is ludicrous to even the most common observer.”

[PiersGaveston]

God Save The Queen!

Sorry about the previous message I didn't see you were in Canada. She's as much your Queen as mine - though you get a pretty ghastly Governor General in her place I believe.

My acquaintances in Canada suggest that it isn't doing terribly well in the religion stakes either; have things got as bad as for the ketchup-eaters south of the 49th? Is there still a vestige of freedom in the great Dominion?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

EXPEL THIS CHILD!

[FreedomCalls]

Were the state to step in and force it one way or another that would be almost as oppressive as the various governments of the U.S. banning red and green clothes.

Like banning bookmakers from opening on Christmas day perhaps? Or Stoke City Council banning the word "Christmas" from their Christmas celebrations and substituting “WinterFest” instead? Or Birmingham City Council calling theirs “Winterval”?

[Polyxene]

I'm surprised Jesse Jackson and the other black power types aren't screaming about this. Aren't red and green the colors used in the celebration of Kwanzaa (along with black)???? This is SO un-freakin'-believable! I think I have finally gone through the Looking Glass!! Hey, I think I see the White Rabbit!!

[PiersGaveston]

Did you miss this part? Not private organization, but a public one.

This wasn't in the link you provided. Hey ho, let's talk about it anyway.

Not long ago his own department found itself accused of blinkered Scroogery after a ban on Christmas decorations in its offices, coupled with the decision not to allow the creation of a Nativity scene at one public facility, -SNIP-We have a policy against the display of any religious objects in our premises

They're just a bunch of grumpy gits, over in the 'land of the free and home of the brave' (yeah right) this is not scrooge-like behaviour, but a constitutional requirement. The full force of SCOTUS and their pretty tasteless gowns (proper gaudy dress is essential for judges, loosing the wigs was the worst part of the American rebellion) will descend on any public funding of anything which could so tenuously be called religious as red clothes.

Over here, one department has a dash of the P.C. brigade about it. Hardly worth comparing is it?

[expatguy]

Just when I think it can't get worse... it does.

what is it gonna take before Americans rise up with pitchforks and torches and take the country back?

[PiersGaveston]

Like banning bookmakers from opening on Christmas day perhaps? Or Stoke City Council banning the word "Christmas" from their Christmas celebrations and substituting “WinterFest” instead? Or Birmingham City Council calling theirs “Winterval”?

Ahh good free America where betting shops can force their employees to come into work on the most widely observed holiday of the year.

Yeah we've got plenty of P.C. fools pratting around over here, but these local councils have little power anyway, so the petty Hitlers (and Blair-wannabes) change a couple of words.

Contrast that with banning red clothes.

I repeat. My school is having a religious carol service in a church, it had daily prayers (probably still does) when I was there. Tons of schools have Nativity plays. Where does this happen in America?

[FreedomCalls]

The full force of SCOTUS and their pretty tasteless gowns (proper gaudy dress is essential for judges, loosing the wigs was the worst part of the American rebellion) will descend on any public funding of anything which could so tenuously be called religious as red clothes.

Dude, you've lost it. You are clearly trolling here now. This was not a SCOTUS decision, it is the decision of an independent school district.

[FreedomCalls]

I repeat. My school is having a religious carol service in a church, it had daily prayers (probably still does) when I was there. Tons of schools have Nativity plays. Where does this happen in America?

In very nearly every private school in America, that's where.

[headsonpikes]

There is a vestige, indeed!

We North Americans may be backwoodsmen, but we're not terribly intimidated by the chattering class churchmen.

They now get the same respect as lawyers.

As a disestablishmentarian in general, I see this as a good thing.

Sorry, I'm no tory. ;^)

[FreedomCalls]

Ahh good free America where betting shops can force their employees to come into work on the most widely observed holiday of the year.

Here in America, employers can't force anyone to come to work.

[Joe Hadenuf]

In addition to banning Christmas colors, school officials have reportedly prohibited students from exchanging candy canes and pencils with religious messages on them, using reindeer symbols, or writing “Merry Christmas” on greeting cards to U.S. soldiers because the phrase might “offend someone.” The district has even applied its policy to parents involved in school activities, barring them from exchanging “religious” Christmas items with other parents.

Texas? LOL! If this article were about a school district in Cal, there would be 300 people here hoping everyone in the state gets wiped out.

School district prohibited students from exchanging candy canes and pencils with religious messages on them, using reindeer symbols, or writing “Merry Christmas” on greeting cards to U.S. soldiers because the phrase might “offend someone.”

Good Lord, you can't make this stuff up.

[FreedomCalls]

This wasn't in the link you provided.

Yes it was. It was in the 18th and 19th paragraphs of 85.

Are you a product of the great British schooling where school children don't know what a carrot is?

POINTY THING CONFUSES KIDS

Pupils on a visit to a farm confessed to staff they had never seen or eaten a carrot before.

Despite it being one of the most common vegetables in Britain, the children seemed bemused by the strange, orange object.

Other pupils asked staff at the food festival if they could be eaten raw.

Sally Jackson, joint owner of Lincolnshire Organics Farm Shop said it was mainly six and seven-year-olds who said they had never tasted a carrot.

She told the Daily Express: "And some asked, 'Can you eat it like that, don't you need to cook it first?'.

"It's one of the first foods a child eats."

She added: "We were handing out mini-carrots and quite a few children said they had never tried a carrot and some they had never eaten them raw.

"Some schools are brilliant because they are teaching children about food but there's a big gap that needs filling."

Or have heard of Auschwitz?

NEARLY HALF OF BRITONS NEVER HEARD OF AUSCHWITZ

LONDON (AFP) - Nearly half of Britons have never heard of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in southern Poland, according to a BBC television poll that was conducted just ahead of the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation.

[pau1f0rd]

When King and People understand each other past a doubt,
It takes a foe and more than a foe to knock that country out;
For the one will do what the other requires as soon as the need is shown;
And hand in hand they can make a stand which neither could make alone!

This wisdom had Elizabeth and all her subjects too,
For she was theirs and they were hers, as well the Spaniard knew;
For when his grim Armada come to conquer the Nation and Throne,
Why, back to back they met an attack that neither could face alone!

It is not wealth, nor talk, nor trade, nor schools, nor even the Vote,
Will save your land when the enemy's hand is tightening round your throat.
But a King and a People who thoroughly trust each other in all that is done
Can sleep on their bed without any dread--for the world will leave 'em alone!

[HarleyD]

"I'm not concerned about them winning the war against Christ...the outcome is assured."

Amen. "...If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;..." John 15:20

This is clearly a Constitutional issue for which we should stand up against. I also wonder what the school board would do if parents grouped together and refuse to support any more fund raisers?

[rollo tomasi]

If I was a pupil in the district all I would wear around Xmas is a red and green shirt with a picture of the Nativity scene (And then wait for the Civil suit $$$ lottery shuffle).

[rogermellie]

my dear americans, can we please stop this from turning into a brit-bashing thread - despite the admitted provocation of my colleagues - and turn our fire on to the morons who come up with this rubbish and then to the other morons who allow it to stand?

in defence of my friends i will say this: almost every day on FR we brits are told how our country is ruled by islamic fanatics and raging homosexuals and that in ten years we'll be having our throats cut while muslim hoards rape our women - which is obviously rubbish, as anyone who knows our country can tell you. so, when a thread such as this appears you can understand our joy - not for the facts of the case - but for the delicious irony of the case, that you in america, not us britain, are prevented from publicly celebrating christmas.

good luck though, i do hope you manage to get your country back from the lawyers.

i just won't bet on it.

[PiersGaveston]

Dude, you've lost it. You are clearly trolling here now. This was not a SCOTUS decision, it is the decision of an independent school district.

Well do help me find it then.

I know this was not a SCOTUS decision, but I ask is there a case of state-funded religion (even of the most benign kind) which has been tested in the courts and found to be merry?

SCOTUS set the whole ball running with that famous case kicking out school prayer (forgive me if I am not an expert on American case-law history). Thus SCOTUS is implicated in the wider policy of which this is but one case.

[PiersGaveston]

In very nearly every private school in America, that's where.

And what proportion of the [child] population attends such institutions?

Over here both state and independent schools can have religion; indeed my father (a Church of England Priest) sits on a governing board of a school simply because he is the local Priest, it's a C.ofE. School (state school as well).

[PiersGaveston]

Are you a product of the great British schooling where school children don't know what a carrot is?

Goodness no. I live in Buckinghamshire which is Tory controlled and has been since goodness knows when. We have decent education in this part of the country.

Or have heard of Auschwitz?

Indeed I have. Pity you guys turned up late for W.W.II or we'd have been in there kicking out the Nazis much quicker. But hey ho, let's not dwell on what might have been.