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Mississippi school district fined $7500 for opening assembly with prayer
Foxnews.com ^ | 7/28/2015 | Samuel Smith, Christian Post

Posted on 07/28/2015 10:51:29 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative

Allowing a school assembly honoring high-achievers to open with a prayer made one Mississippi school district $7,500 poorer - and a student who sued $2,500 richer. The Rankin, Miss., public school district was hit with the fine after U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves said it defied his prior order barring prayers school events. According to the judge, the prayer violated a 2013 court settlement that ordered the district to stop "proselytizing Christianity." The alleged violation, which came at an assembly last year for students who scored above 22 on their ACT college admissions test, prompted the judge to apply fines for that and another incident, in which Gideons International was permitted to hand out Bibles to elementary school students. "The district's breach did not take very long and it occurred in a very bold way," Reeves wrote in his judgment. "Its conduct displays that the district did not make any effort to adhere to the agreed judgment." Reeves also ordered the district to pay the student's legal fees, an amount that will be determined at a later date, and threatened a $10,000 fine for any future infractions of the order. The assembly at Brandon High School in May 2014 began with a prayer led by local Methodist pastor Rev. Rob Gill. Although not mandatory, the assembly honored the district's students who scored higher than a 22 on their ACT college tests The school district first came under legal fire when the same student took the school district and the school's then-principal, Charles Frazier, to court in 2013 for forcing him to attend a series of assemblies that promoted Christianity. Attorneys for the school district have argued that Gill's prayer did not violate the 2013 orders or the student's First Amendment rights because attendance at the assembly was optional.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antichristian; education; mississippi; schoolprayer
I would stop having any ceremony or awards period.
1 posted on 07/28/2015 10:51:29 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Resolute Conservative

Yep. There’s always got to be at least one “morally outraged” azzhole in the mix, plus it pays these days.


2 posted on 07/28/2015 11:01:36 AM PDT by mrsmel (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

When a malcontent brat can thwart the will of a whole school district by using our rotten judicial system to get what he wants, there is no hope for us at all - even in the deep South. This country is finished.


3 posted on 07/28/2015 11:02:17 AM PDT by madprof98
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To: Resolute Conservative
The liberal media will never report on this item I stumbled across;

Supreme Court of the United States (Docket 12-696)

Town of Greece v. Galloway

Holding: The town's practice of opening its town board meetings with a prayer offered by members of the clergy does not violate the Establishment Clause when the practice is consistent with the tradition long followed by Congress and state legislatures, the town does not discriminate against minority faiths in determining who may offer a prayer, and the prayer does not coerce participation with non-adherents.
4 posted on 07/28/2015 11:06:47 AM PDT by Traveler59 ( Truth is a journey, not a destination.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

Home football games at the Univ of South Carolina begin with a prayer - 80,000 people with their head bowed in prayer is pretty powerful - I wonder which asshole will try and shut it down this season


5 posted on 07/28/2015 11:14:00 AM PDT by capydick ("If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.")
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To: Resolute Conservative

They should appeal.

I don’t think courts can fine people for using free speech.


6 posted on 07/28/2015 11:25:11 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: GeronL

I think that “student” needs a little therapy, lump therapy.


7 posted on 07/28/2015 11:30:43 AM PDT by Mouton (The insurrection laws perpetuate what we have for a government now.)
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To: Mouton

He volunteered for that, lol


8 posted on 07/28/2015 11:48:19 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: Mouton
I think that “student” needs a little therapy, lump therapy.

Give out his home address so people can contact him and express their opinions about him more conveniently.

9 posted on 07/28/2015 11:52:24 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: Resolute Conservative

When, oh when, will we grow a pair and take back the schools. And the country. And the community. And ...


10 posted on 07/28/2015 12:28:12 PM PDT by LouAvul (There is no more GOP. There is RAT, and RAT-lite.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

Cruel and unusual punishment.


11 posted on 07/28/2015 1:41:27 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: Mouton

-—I think that “student” needs a little therapy, lump therapy.-—

Maybe the student and the judge should receive a little backwoods therapy.


12 posted on 07/28/2015 1:41:58 PM PDT by FLCowboy, (Can the GOP save this country in the next two years?)
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To: madprof98
When a malcontent brat . . .

That malicious, malcontent brat should at the very least be shunned by his classmates. The teachers cannot do that, but they should deal with him on a professional level only. Need a letter of recommendation for college? Ask your lawyer, since no decent teacher likes bullies or thugs. Need a prom date? It's not going to happen with any decent girl.

13 posted on 07/28/2015 2:52:42 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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