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Posted on 05/06/2004 5:45:45 AM PDT by 4everontheRight
An Anderson County District 4 teaching assistant says she is on paid leave because of her Christian views.
Jean Byce spoke to parents and teachers at a meeting Wednesday night. She said it all started as a result of typical classroom behavior at La France Elementary.
"In a school in a community like ours, where 99 percent of the people are Christians, children talk about Jesus a lot," Byce said. "A student sang a song to me and asked me a question about Jesus being in heaven forever and believing in Jesus and going to heaven, and asked if I believed that, and I said 'Yes.'"
Byce said that comment upset the parents of another child, who complained to the school district. Byce admitted it wasn't the first time she had been reprimanded for her Christian views.
"His parents were already upset because of another incident in which I told the children what the Christian fish symbol was and how it originated," she said. "Unfortunately, the people at the district level and the attorneys for our district see this as a violation of the law and as insubordination on my part."
District 4 Superintendent Dr. Gary Burgess said, "She has been placed on paid adminstrative leave. We are investigating and I cannot comment further at this time."
The parent who brought the concerns to the district, John Cummings, said, "This is a district matter between the district and its employee. If people want the truth they will contact the district."
Byce said she'll stand up for her job, but she doesn't want the battle to be bitter.
"We want to be Christlike about this, that we're not angry with anybody. We're not upset with anybody," Byce said.
Byce said the district offered her a transfer to another school, but she intends to appeal her forced leave.
All it takes is one lawsuit by one parent to financially screw over a school district (and by proxy the taxpayers). This pacification (and dumbing down) of the USA began not too long ago, and chugs along, one lawsuit at a time. Schools can't risk offending anybody so they try to ban any and all religious discussion. They can't risk disciplining a student in a way that makes them feel bad, so they either don't really discipline them at all or they goto the other extreme and get the police involved so that the parents are angry at the police instead.
Once upon a time this nation was a melting pot, looking at all views and cultures, and taking the best from each. Now everybody wants to keep views and cultures seperate, not wanting to hear what others think.
You can't put your finger on any one moment when it started, but you can place the blame squarely at the doorstep of the liberals. They want to keep races/cultures/etc. seperate. They don't want to risk having their children being exposed to *gasp* a Christian point of view, or whatever. They don't want their kids' feelings hurt, so that rules out a lot of disciplinary methods (nevermind the fact that if they don't do a good job of raising their kids, it'll come back to haunt them).
"A student sang a song to me and asked me a question about Jesus being in heaven forever and believing in Jesus and going to heaven, and asked if I believed that, and I said 'Yes.'"Byce said that comment upset the parents of another child, who complained to the school district.
One is angelic and one is demonic. Guess which is which.
Parents have the natural right to be their child's primary educators. That means that at a minimum, they should be free to choose a school for their child.
The Baptists have the right idea. I hope it takes off.
I wonder if she started the story at Christ or went into its earlier origins. My guess is the former, so maybe that's what the parents had a problem with.
Or, more likely, they're just rabid atheists who can't even stand the mention of religion in a public school.
They can pound sand for all I care - we will "preach" Christianity as long as God allows us to draw a breath.
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