Free Republic

Parents of students in the California public school system have filed a lawsuit against the state's Department of Education in an attempt to remove a chant to Aztec gods that's part of a new ethnic studies curriculum. The lawsuit was filed Friday by the conservative legal firm Thomas More Society on behalf of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, individual taxpayers and parents of current and former students after their Aug. 26 letter to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction demanding withdraw of the Aztec prayer from the curriculum went unanswered. The lawsuit says the “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” has...

<p>OVIEDO — The parents of an Oviedo 5-year-old insist their daughter was stopped from praying over her school lunch last month, but Seminole County Public Schools officials say no one remembers that happening.</p> <p>Marcos Perez posted a video last week on YouTube of his daughter, Gabriella, a kindergartner at Carillon Elementary in Oviedo, saying she was confronted when she bowed her head to pray at lunch.</p>

Imagine hearing this story from your 5-year-old when you ask her how her day was in kindergarten. Kudos to these parents for staying calm and teaching this little girl that she can pray absolutely anywhere she wants.

The year 1963 was very significant for America in many ways. It was the year that the Negro American, the term used back then, revolted openly but in non-violent fashion against a discriminatory system found especially in the south; it was the year that John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, was assassinated; and it was the year that the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed America’s continued economic and military support of South Viet Nam. It was also the year, however, that a less remembered court decision took place that had far reaching effects on American cultural...

Four students knelt on a classroom floor during lunch at the Albert Payson Terhune Elementary School today and performed the afternoon Muslim prayer ritual.   It was the first time the students had prayed in the school during school hours. And it may end a controversy over what arrangement the district should make to ensure the children’s constitutionally protected right to exercise their religion during school hours.  School parent Rola Awwad has been seeking a private place for her 10-year-old son, Adam, to pray in school since the fall. The district offered to let him pray at recess — either outside...

The East Brunswick school board was within its rights to tell a football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals court ruled today.  The ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower-court ruling made almost two years ago.  All three members of the three-judge panel wrote their own opinions on the issue, which pits the right to free speech against the freedom from official establishment of a religion.The judges agreed the East Brunswick Board of Education's policy barring school...

I like Arthur Branch, the tough-minded district attorney I used to see on NBC's "Law & Order." I like his deep voice and his comforting Southern charm. I like his steadfast determination to seek justice and his clear sense of right and wrong. I've been less certain about Fred Thompson, the actor who played him. He mismanaged his campaign and lost a wave of momentum by delaying the announcement of his presidential bid. He traded Republican debates for late-night talk shows. He's been unspectacular on the campaign trail. But this week, something happened that's making me reconsider my assessment of...

No Prayer in School? Millions of Students Will Pray at "See You At The Pole" Gatherings ORLANDO, FL - Wednesday, September 27, is the official day for the 17th annual "See You At The Pole" prayer rallies. The rallies are student-initiated, student-led events where students gather before school to pray for their classmates, teachers, schools, families, communities, states and nations. Each year approximately three million students from all fifty states and more than twenty countries gathered around school flagpoles to pray. Students in the United States have often met with resistance from school officials who are not educated about constitutional...

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the East Brunswick High School football coach can bend a knee and bow his head while his players recite pre-game prayers this season, ending a dispute that had mushroomed into a nationally recognized test of the separation of church and state. After nearly two hours of arguments, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh sided with the coach, Marcus Borden, declaring "taking a knee" isn't praying and that the Middlesex County school district can't order him to stand still while his players perform a locker room ritual that spans decades. "Tradition plays a part, and the...

(AgapePress) - A Texas high school has agreed to allow its Muslim students to pray during school hours. L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson had told its 30 Muslim students that praying on campus violated the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause, or the so-called separation of church and state.In an e-mail memo to all teachers and staff, the school's principal had stated previously that "No students are to be allowed to leave [the] classroom at any time to go pray." However, after the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty intervened on behalf of the students, the Richardson Independent School District (RISD)...

If Intelligent Design cannot be taught because it is non scientific and only based on personal experience, why should Evolution (Cosmic or Biologic) be rammed down the young skulls of mush when ET itself is based on the personal experiences of so many scientists? ET people have no transitional forms, experiments, or observations proving their 18 billion years of accidental history is any more than a very subjectively devised theory. Many of these scientists, and Judge Jones, are good Lutherans on Sunday, but by Monday - they must deny Almighty God as nonaccidental Creator. In this way they can appear...

Marcus Borden, the head football coach at East Brunswick for the last 23 seasons, has submitted his resignation. Borden, who could not be reached for comment, was summoned to a meeting with Dr. Jo Ann Magistro, the East Brunswick Public Schools superintendent, on Friday after the issue of pre-game team prayer had been brought to the administration's attention. Trish LaDuca, the coordinator of community relations and programs for East Brunswick Public Schools, said the superintendent's office was informed early in the week that there was prayer activity taking place at the team's pre-game dinners.

DENVER (AP) - The Air Force released new guidelines for religious tolerance Monday that discourage public prayer at official functions and urge commanders to be sensitive about personal expressions of religious faith. The document directs chaplains to "respect the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs." But some who have criticized the Air Force Academy questioned whether needed changes will really be implemented. The guidelines, which apply to the entire Air Force, were drawn up after allegations that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the academy in Colorado Springs that anti-Semitism...

Sessions let teens at high school pray, get back to class 03/07/2003 By KRISTINE HUGHES / The Dallas Morning News RICHARDSON – The teenage boys and girls gather in opposite corners of the Berkner High School lecture hall. As most of their classmates head to a Friday afternoon pep rally, their conversation drifts from college applications to whether drinking is permitted by the holy book. Soon, a young man in a Ralph Lauren T-shirt and jeans walks to the front of the room to begin the call to prayer. "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar," he chants, and the students form lines...