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.”

[Osage Orange]

Just having white...comes across as racist too.

Hehehehe...

[deport]

Plano families fight school district policies

By:	12/16/2004

The Legend of the Candy Cane" has resulted in a federal lawsuit against the Plano school district concerning the place of religion in schools.

The tale begins, "A candy maker wanted to invent a candy that was a witness to Christ. First of all, he used a hard candy cane because Christ is the Rock of Ages. This hard candy was shaped so that it would resemble a 'J' for Jesus, or turned upside down, a shepherd's staff."

A year ago, school officials allegedly would not allow Jonathan Morgan to give out candy cane pens with an attached bookmark of "The Legend of the Candy Cane" to his classmates.

Although Morgan can bring his gifts to school this year, the incident brought attention to school district policies that at least four Plano families believe restrict the religious freedoms of their children.

During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Kelly Shackelford, legal counsel of Liberty Legal Institute, announced that his firm had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Sherman on behalf of the four families.

In a statement prepared by its attorneys, Plano school district officials state that the district is committed to protecting students' religious freedoms.

"The Plano ISD has repeatedly indicated to Liberty Legal its belief that each student has a right to religious expression and the Plano ISD is committed to providing students with that right," read a statement prepared by the district's attorneys.

"The Plano ISD is proud of the uniquely diverse population of students enrolled in the District and their diverse religious beliefs," the statement continues. "The Plano ISD will continue to pursue its mandate of 'teamwork for excellence' within its schools."

The lawsuit cites situations at Thomas Elementary, Hughston Elementary, Wells Elementary and Razor Elementary in which school officials have kept students from distributing free tickets to religious events, pencils with the word "Jesus" and the candy cane pens with religious bookmarks.

"Our schools are not zones of religious censorship," Shackelford said. His law firm has filed lawsuits in many cases involving disputes over First Amendment freedoms.

And when Morgan was in third grade last year, his principal and teacher would not allow him to hand out the candy cane pens and bookmark during the class party because of their religious nature, the lawsuit states. While he could not give out the religious messages, his classmates were allowed to exchange other secular gifts. School officials told Morgan he could only distribute his gifts in the library or on the sidewalk, according to the lawsuit.

The Morgan family said last year they planned to file suit after the incident. After news reports told the story, Liberty Legal Institute received calls from other families who told of similar problems at Plano schools, Shackelford said.

"It's part of a pattern and practice at Plano ISD that really has to be put to a stop very soon," said Hiram Sasser, one of the attorneys in the case. "It's sending a very clear message to the students that religion is not to be allowed in the building. That's a terrible message."

School officials stated Wednesday that a decision was made earlier this year that children could distribute any materials, including those that are religious, during class parties because they determined that class parties are non-instructional time.

"As a result, the District decided that students and parents could hand out any materials, written or otherwise, that they desired as long as the distribution did not cause a material and substantial disruption to the school environment," read the district's statement.

However, Liberty Legal disputed the district's response with a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon.

"We have been told Plano ISD released a statement that they were planning all along to do the Christmas Party during non-instructional time and that students would be allowed to pass out anything they want," the statement reads. "This is untrue. They have never told the parents, students or their attorneys this. In fact, in their letter of just one week ago to parents, it explicitly states that the school policy prohibiting distribution of materials at school would apply."

But Liberty Legal attorneys state that the district must still change its policy.

"This would not, however, resolve all the problems," the statement from Liberty Legal concludes. "Are they still going to apply this unconstitutional policy during the rest of the school day each day, just not during the Christmas Party? Will more little girls be told they may not hand out pencils with "Jesus" on them?"

Speaking for his son, Doug Morgan said Wednesday that Jonathan wanted to share his Christian beliefs with his friends, a practice that is encouraged at home and at church.

"My child just with his Christian beliefs, feeling that a religious message is something we're commanded to do as part of our teaching, and then to be precluded from doing it made him feel like for some reason it wasn't OK," Doug Morgan said. "It wasn't something that was appropriate to be shared in public." --- missing word?

But Sasser said a 1969 Supreme Court decision, in Tinker v. Des Moines, allows for all free speech, including religious speech, as long as the speech does not disrupt school activities and does not interfere with the rights of others.

"We want them to do that," Sasser said, saying that the district's legal policy reflects the Supreme Court ruling.

The district's local policy states that classrooms are designated for student instruction and hallways simply connect students with classrooms and lockers.

"Each school campus shall designate an area where materials that have been approved for distribution, as provided below, may be made available or distributed to students or others in accordance with the time, place, and manner restrictions developed and approved by the campus principal," the district's local policy states.

The district policy requires prior review by school officials of all written material outside of the district's control. School officials can prohibit the distribution of materials such as fliers and pencils if they are obscene, provide a danger to health, violate the rights of another person, contain defamatory statements about a person, criticize the school board or school officials, promote in disruptive action or include attacks on groups of people.

Schools have some legal authority to restrict First Amendment rights at school if those rights interfere with school activities, said Lackland Bloom, a law professor at Southern Methodist University who teaches constitutional law. The question is what the district is trying to protect in limiting religious speech.

"Obviously, there's more latitude in a school setting, especially an elementary school setting, but there's some limits," Bloom said.

At the same time, Schackelford knows the law and wins many cases, Bloom said.
Shackelford said that if students can talk about Madonna and the Cowboys, they can talk about their faith.

"Jonathan just wanted to participate like everyone else with the goodie bags," Shackelford said. "He was excited about being able to hand something to them in connection with Christmas that was really personal to him. It's something that he believed and he wanted to share with his fellow students."

And government officials do not have the right to tell students and others what they can say, Shackelford said.

Contact staff writer Brenda Bernet at 972-398-4265 or bernetb@scntx.com.

©Star Community Newspapers 2004

[Born Conservative]

[bunches]

I'll see your swift kick to the tookus and immersion in molten iron and raise you 12 mandatory hours of viewing "The Anna Nicole Smith Show".

[Alouette]

Even the plates and napkins must be white.

Wait for Al 'n' Jesse to yell RACISM!!

[Lazamataz]

I'll see your swift kick to the tookus and immersion in molten iron and raise you 12 mandatory hours of viewing "The Anna Nicole Smith Show".

Hey, look, let's not get cruel here.

[MississippiMan]

How in hell, these radical minority liberals in the school system or the court system managed to "FORCE" their ridiculous hate of Christians down the throat of the majority?

There is NO doubt that the time has come for serious civil disobedience regarding this kind of crap. People must stand up and say NO MORE. In this instance, everybody who possibly can should be wearing red and green, carrying red and green. They should bring red and green paper plates or napkins or cups in their backpacks. And parents should show up in the hallways IMHO, and dare the officials to attempt to enforce their ludicrous ban.

MM

[little jeremiah]

Moral Absolutes Ping. (Just a note: I lost most of the names on this list, so ping me if you want on/back on/off this pinglist!)

Can you really believe this? I know it's true, but I keep shaking my head so much my brains are swimming. What is the matter with these people? Is it that they hate God so much they must live in a "search and destroy" mode? Or are some of them fearful little wimps who tremble in terror that somehwere, somehow, an atheist might look crosseyed at them?

This whole CHRISTMAS season (along with everything else) reminds me of a bad illness that is coming to a fever pitch - the fever has to come to a climax and the patient will either die or get well.

[Ol' Sox]

After all the disturbing tales of Christmas being tossed on the rubbish heap, please let me lift up my town and brag a bit. Norwalk is a working man's town in blue Connecticut, diverse both racially and economically. I went to my son's middle school Winter Concert last night, eager to see and hear him perform, and curious to see if the perpetually offended had infiltrated and banned Christmas music.

There were:
Four traditional CHRISTmas pieces
Two traditional Jewish folk songs
Three Winter Holiday-esque pieces (including "Frosty's Caribbean Holiday"
an "African Noel" with the newly formed drum ensemble
and
"Sakura", a Japanese piece for strings.

Inclusive and respectful of any and all, just as was intended. Not much room for complaint because the program was as diverse as the student body, and any complainers would be outed as bigots. I really love my town.

[Xenalyte]

We're in Texas . . . we've never seen snow! For all we know, it could look like red clay dirt.

[little jeremiah]

That's already happening:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1302716/posts

Christians Face 47 Years in Prison Because Philly Judge Calls Bible Verses

Title doesn't say it, but he called Bible verses "instruments of crime".

Read it and weep.

[Skooz]

This is a just freaking bizarre.

[little jeremiah]

The newest head honcho of the ACLU is (first name forgot) Romero, a noted "gay" activist.

Grampa Dave has been doing google searchings with names, especially "journalists" and adding words such as "gay" to the search. It's amazing how many of the elite are also "gay" activists.

[varon]

Even the plates and napkins must be white.

Now that sounds like blatant racism to me. Surely it must offend some on the tinted students ;-)

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Good thing the NHL's in lockout mode. Otherwise, any Minnesota Wild fans would be banned from wearing their team jerseys. Probably other pro teams out there with green and red colors, as well. It's sad that displaying CHristmas spirit is treated the same as wearing gang colors.

[PiersGaveston]

Wasn't a politician recently arrested in your beloved country for simply saying something he believed?

No, a fascist was arrested for incitement to racial hatred, a crime which predates the whole P.C. era by 30-40 years, and which by definition can have nothing to do with Islam.

They might still celebrate Christmas in the UK, but in 20 years the UK will be a Muslim country, so enjoy it whilst it lasts.

We certainly do celebrate Christmas, along with school prayers, state-funded church schools (whose numbers are actually increasing), and much else. We certainly will enjoy this lack of state-sponsered attacks on religion, and what's more it will last.

but don't you think monarchy is a little outdated? I just don't get the whole King/Queen crap

Don't you think republics are outdated? They have been shown to be unstable throughout history. The only republics I can think of which have any history behind them are San Marino and Switzerland, all others are either incredibly young or have fallen.

British freedoms rest on our Monarchy, that is why we are free without silly pieces of paper to wave around (which can then be used to oppress religion in schools). It is particualy ironic to talk about this today, as it is the anniversary of Oliver Cromwell becoming Lord Protector (i.e., military dictator) during our one period of oppression which coincides with our one period of republicanism.

I realise that you Americans haven't quite got over loosing the Monarchy, and so have to chase around following everything to do with our Royal family. Maybe once your country passes adolescence you'll understand all of this.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm also a great fan of the U.S.-U.K. alliance; our two countries have been at their best when fighting together - against Nazis, against Communism, and against Terror, long may it continue.

[FreedomCalls]

This is an interesting article. The Broward Mall has displays of Jewish Menorahs in honor of Hanukkah, but refuses to put up Christmas symbols "because it is against mall policy to display religious symbols such as Nativity scenes." When asked "But what about the Menorahs?" the mall general manager said "the Menorah doesn't violate the policy because it's a celebration of a battle, not a religious event."

*Jaw drop* *Dumb founded*!!

[EdReform]

Agreed! In addition to wearing red and green, it would be great to see kids in the public schools start singing traditional Christmas carols during class change time. Maybe they could even go carolling outside the school office!

[Right in Wisconsin]

Somehow I thought the results would be "shocking"

[EdReform]

We need to start collecting those search results into a separate thread.