Posted on 01/30/2016 7:02:48 AM PST by HomerBohn
The parents of a Maryland teenager are suing their daughter's high school over a world history lesson they claim was little more than Islamic indoctrination.
The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against La Plata High School on behalf of John and Melissa Wood, claiming the lesson favored a "sugar-coated version of Islam" over other religions and forced their 16-year-old child "to disparage her Christian faith," according to the law firm.
The parents said the class spent one day on Christianity, followed by two weeks on Islam.
And the 11th grader was "forced to profess and to write out the Shahada in worksheets and quizzes," the firm said.
"The Shahada is the Islamic Creed, 'There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.' For non-Muslims, reciting the statement is sufficient to convert one to Islam."
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said the favoritism did not stop there.
"The course also taught false statements such as Allah is the same God worshiped by Christians and Islam is a 'religion of peace,'" he said in court documents.
Thompson said "such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another."
According to the suit, the class was told "the Islamic religion is a fact while Christianity and Judaism are just beliefs," and were not allowed to opt out of the lesson on the basis of religious beliefs.
Wood was told his daughter would receive a zero if she didn't complete the assignments.
The Thomas More Law Center said the Wood family, who are Christians, "chose to remain faithful to God and refused to complete the assignments, even though failing grades would harm her future admission to college and her opportunities to obtain college scholarships."
Adding insult to injury, the father, a Marine veteran who was deployed in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, was banned from school grounds after he complained, according to the suit.
Charles County Schools released a statement about the world history class, insisting that "other religions are introduced when they influence or impact a particular historical era or geographic region."
"The particular unit in question is on the formation of Middle Eastern empires in which students learned the basic concepts of the Islamic faith and how it, along with politics, culture, economics and geography, contributed to the development of the Middle East," the school district said in the statement.
lots of assumptions being made, eh?
If I were an administrator, I wouldn’t be commenting.
But hopefully the truth will out.
The so-called seperation of of church and state only applies to Christoanity.
I think you are right.
However, the principle is correct.
To test it out, do what I suggested in my post above. Require students of all faiths to write and recite the creeds or articles of faith of opposite religions. See how parents react.
I bet you a lot of dollars the Muslim parents will be down at the school in an instant causing a ruckus.
If they allow it one way, then allow it the other way.
But the public school cartel are too chicken to try this out. They only go after Christians, as you said. That’s why we should force the issue. Go after Mulslim students in the same way, for example.
Of course as usually happens when posting, between editing and distractions, there are several informative posts not read. IF this particular situation is an overreaction by this Marine, the fact remains that our Christian heritage is being assaulted on all fronts, especially in the public schools.
Kabul 2010
That is all one needs to know about islam.
[[That school obviously has a sick, twisted social science teacher.]]
It’s not just the science teacher- it’s the whole school who have sat by idly and done nothing to protest this outrage, AND it’s the leaders I nthe school for defending this sickness-
Is the truth top secret? Can you perhaps give some insight into what is missing in this report? I’m sincerely curious as the way it’s being presented, there seems to be little room for doubt. I’m saying this even with the knowledge that our media is dishonest.
Thank you
You have no idea what that families financial situation is. Just a smear on a Marine vet taking the fight against public schools. Not only that he probably killed some Jihads. What have you done? You on right forum?
That’s the only kind of lawsuit that is effective. Suing the district and winning only means the district forks over other people’s money. Making them pay out of their own accounts, lose their cars, homes and savings accounts makes it personal and effective in terms of future deterrence.
Sorry, but these parents are paying for that school with their tax dollars, and their child has every right to get a decent education and not be indoctrinated in Islam in the course of it.”””
Do not forget all of us who never had any children, but have paid property taxes & about 50% of those monies go to the schools. At the least, I should expect that my tax money buys a kid who is worthy of being employable out of 12th grade. NOT Happening.
I bought my first house in May of 1966-—just shy of 50 years ago. I inherited a 2nd house in 1980, & I had paid the property taxes for my Dad for 8 years prior to his death. I bought a third house in Jan of 1989, and I rented it out until I could move into it in 1993, while renting out the first house. The inherited house was also rented out. I sold the first house in April of 1995. I sold the inherited house in about 1998. I sold the third house in Nov of 2004 and bought this property in Jan of 2005.
That all adds up to 82 years of school taxes I have paid for. I never had any kids-—no grand kids-—So I have paid a tremendous amount of money for schools which I never used. Sure would like a refund on 50% of that money!!! With frozen soc sec payments at age 76, it would be very welcome.
Those of us who don’t have kids also have a reason to gripe about how the school administrations & teachers are handling our kids.
Hooray for this vet who is suing !!! Deserves all of our support.
As a Christian, fellow believers would rightly disapprove if I were to send my children to a Hindu school where they are immersed in a Hindu worldview, or a Muslim school to be immersed in Islam, or a Buddhist school to be trained in buddism, etc. Yet sending them to a secular humanism school is not only accepted, but to remove them is giving up.
At the founding of our nation, there were no “public schools” as we know them today, or even as we knew them during any generation that is still alive today. We would have to go back to how school was done prior to the acceptance of the Prussian Model that took place in the mid to late 1800s. Realistically, that won’t happen.
As a homeschool mom I see the reactions of those who don’t homeschool. To be frank, most people aren’t willing to give what it takes to avoid having their children steeped in godlessness for 35+ hours a week. It requires a huge effort-very few homeschooling moms do not work outside the home, they work nights and weekends (myself included), so the argument about not being able to afford living on one income isn’t an insurmountable problem for most. Curriculum doesn’t have to be too costly, either. A few years ago I discovered the original McGuffey curriculum for all subjects, K-12 on CD-ROM for around $200. All your kids educated for $200 total is pretty affordable.
Yes, ideally public schools would teach kids true history, reason, honor and all the ideals upon which our country was founded. But schools belong to the government that won’t even maintain its border, enables generations of dependency, protects criminals and uses its agencies to attack innocent civilians. I’m not sacrificing my children to the government only to be frustrated when it does the wrong thing. Training the hearts and minds of children is the God given responsibility of parents (Deuteronomy 6).
I suggest you “educate” yourself on the history of public schools.
I don’t know and I don’t care.
Public schooling is child abuse. The mast majority of government work-teachers are functionally illiterate.
Just listen to them talk!
Good god, what does government do well???
My dad, who was 18 years old when his boots hit the sands of Normandy, NEVER owned a new car and sacrificed MUCH so that my two brothers and I could attend private school.
That was over 50 years ago, too!
The whole thing is disgraceful.
I can, but it comes from Snopes.
This has been going on since 2014, and filing the lawsuit is just the latest development. The man was banned from the school in 2014 for threatening an asst principle.
He says she(daughter) was "forced to profess and to write out the Shahada in worksheets and quizzes.
She wasn't required to profess anything but she did have to write out the Shahada as an assignment in the study of calligraphy.
The assignment, under the heading of practicing calligraphy says: "Here is the shahada, the Islamic statement of faith, written in Arabic. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy."
As the school has said, the course conforms to state curriculum. Statewide, how many other parents are complaining/filing suit.
That may very well be true. Still this thing has a Bonfire of the Vanities feel about it. No stopping the outrage now. Apparantly the cause is more important than the truth of what really happened.
A pity there are real people involved who will bear the consequences. And thousands of taxpayer dollars (or more) will be spent trying to defend this. sigh.
Thanks Ben. That is consistent with my understanding.
Very true. Even if you don’t have kids in the school system, you’re paying for it and shouldn’t let it be used to indoctrinate your neighbor’s children in a hostile ideology.
The principal allows this to go on. In fact, it seems she actively supports it. Very unattractive woman BTW.
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