Posted on 03/12/2005 1:36:33 AM PST by Flyer
Learning the prayer is not part of his class work, but 17-year old Clifton Jackson says a teacher at his school told him to learn it.
"That's not they job to be teaching him religion," says his aunt Rubie Jackson.
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Clifton Jackson was being taken to a mosque by a teacher to pray.
Jackson is Clifton's aunt, and she's upset because she thinks some staff members at the Boys and Girls Prep Academy are trying to convert her nephew to Islam.
According to Jackson, every Friday during school hours, a teacher takes her nephew to this nearby Mosque to pray.
"As far as I'm concerned, that's kidnapping. You don't take a child off of school grounds property without they parents' permission," she says.
She says his father went to the school two months ago and asked them to stop, but she found out last week that Clifton was still being taken to the mosque on Fridays.
Jackson confronted the teacher.
"'He's 17, he's legal. He's in the state of Texas,' that's what he kept saying," says Jackson.
But Jackson says her nephew is mentally challenged and easily influenced.
"We in no way promote any type of religious philosophy here," says Carroll Salley of the Girls And Boys Prep Academy.
The Superintendent and founder of the Charter school said she has reprimanded the teacher.
"I've talked to him personally. I can certainly assure that no student is going to be taken off campus without parental consent," Salley says.
Until they get some answers, the Jacksons say Clifton won't be going back to school.
11 News contacted the Texas Education Agency, which oversees public and charter schools.
The agency says parents have legal authority over a child until the child is 18, and because of separation of church and state, a teacher should not be providing religious instruction during the school day.
... not they job ...
thankue, thankue, thankue...ah wants anuddder one...
SHOULD know, yes. WOULD know? I doubt it. There's a huge distance between "should" and "would" in gummint organizations.
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