Posted on 08/02/2005 11:49:31 AM PDT by THE person involved
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
School says bench stays where it is By Candice Cunningham
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - Despite one parent's questions about its "overtly religious" content and a possible constitutional violation, Marietta City Schools officials say they have no plans to remove a bench from the Marietta High School campus inscribed with the words "Jesus Loves You!"
Marietta Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck said in a response letter to parent David Bernknopf on Friday that the bench would stay.
"On the advice of legal counsel, there are no plans to do anything regarding the bench," Dr. Lembeck stated.
Dr. Lembeck and the school system's attorney, Clem Doyle, were unavailable for further comment Monday.
Bernknopf, a former CNN producer and media consultant whose son and daughter attend nearby A.L. Burruss Elementary, sent a letter to school system officials last month questioning whether the bench's message was "overtly religious." He sent a letter to school officials asking them to investigate whether it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which calls for separation of church and state.
On Monday, however, Bernknopf said he never intended to take the matter to court and plans to take no further action.
"I certainly never had any interest in filing a complaint or filing a lawsuit," he said. "Obviously, I thought it was questionable."
After receiving Dr. Lembeck's response, he said he is not interested in pursuing the issue. Any future challenge to the bench, he said, could be left to constitutional experts.
Smyrna resident Ed Buckner, secretary of the local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the bench message clearly violates state and federal Supreme Court law, which regulates religious content on public property.
"It implies to anyone who sees it that the government is endorsing that particular point of view," he said.
He said the school should remove the bench or face the potential of a costly lawsuit.
"I think they'll move it," he said. "I think it may require court action to do it, but I think they'll move it."
Buckner said his group was not planning to file a suit but said the school system is leaving itself open for other groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, to do so.
"It's a bad idea to get into the business of which religion is right and which is wrong," he said. "In that lies madness."
"What if the Atlanta Freethought Society wanted to put up a bench that said, 'There is no God?'" Buckner added. "Do you think they'd say 'Yes?' I don't."
Marietta school board Chairwoman Irene Berens said the law governing such issues is vague.
"The Supreme Court didn't give us much guidance," she said. "They seem willing to look at it on a case-by-case basis, which puts us in a difficult situation as far as interpretation."
Just last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two divergent rulings relating to displays of the Ten Commandments at courthouses in Kentucky and Texas.
Berens said she was satisfied with the legal advice provided by Doyle.
He researched legal opinions and consulted with state school board attorneys, the Gainesville-based Harbin and Hartley firm, before returning his decision, she said.
Bernknopf said that Dr. Lembeck's three-paragraph letter was brief and did not clarify whether the bench is currently violating the law.
"It would've been nice to have more detail," he said.
For now, district spokesman Bill Doughty said the bench would stay where it is because no one has specifically asked the school to remove it.
If a formal request were made, he said, school officials would need to reconsider the issue.
The bench, located outside the high school's cafeteria and near the school bus drop off area, was installed in 2001, Doughty said. Private donations from the school's PTA paid for it as part of a large fund-raising campaign conducted before the new Whitlock Avenue school was built.
Other benches are placed on local school campuses bearing messages that include the names of local businesses and the names of deceased loved ones.
The school system does not have a policy regulating the content inscribed on school structures and school officials do not have plans to consider such a policy, Doughty said.
Berens said the school system tries to keep its policies to a minimum.
"You cannot have a policy to address every contingency that might happen," she said.
School board member Annette Lewis said Bernknopf raised a legitimate question that was aimed at protecting the school from fighting a costly legal battle.
"If I had seen the bench there, I would have asked the question," she said. "It was a legitimate question and one the school system wanted to wait and get a legal opinion on."
Although Bernknopf might not have gotten the response he wanted, he indicated that his efforts were not for naught.
"An informal debate on a topic of this nature is always beneficial," he said.
Copyright © 2005 Marietta Daily Journal. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and Registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
local just damn
Dang! I'm very impressed with your social skills. You must really be able to keep the flow of conversation going at parties.
:~)
My advice....spend a little more time inside the schools in Georgia (my kids are in Canton) and change things that actually matter on a day to day basis. For goodness sake is this all you could find that might potentially "waste" taxpayer dollars? Hope you are the one researching stories.
As for CNN as a whole...it has been a fabulous teaching tool for my kids on media bias. I knew the lesson was sinking in when, after 2 months of CNN international in Europe, my 6 year old, with NO PROMPTING from me, asked "Why does this station had President Bush so much..."
Lord knows if a six year old can figure it out, someone at CNN should be mighty embarrassed. And before you throw Fox in...let me say that Fox has many talking heads who are admittedly conservative....but they are not the newsreaders and story selectors....
good response. When we need to be worried about under-performing schools and implimenting a voucher plan, HE's worried about a bench.
I think it's incredible that "Jesus Loves You" is offensive, but we are all supposed to be tolerant of the "religion of peace", whose followers train in camps to make bombs and kill anyone who doesn't believe as they do. They need a bench that says "Muhammad hates you and wants you dead."
Hey...we must all embrace that, and be accepting of their religion, and remember to wipe out Christianity wherever it rears its ugly head.
Astounding logic.
Exactly....sh** like this is left for when you have done all the really important stuff and you have run out of critical things to change. Like changing the paint color in the gust bathroom AFTER the house has been rewired, new plumbing, roof patched, etc.
Thank God that someone else on the internet knows the difference between 'loose' and 'lose'!
Where are all the kitties, anyway?
Welcome to FreeRepublic. So are you the CNN guy? That's probably about the worst epithet anyone would use, anyway. If you're not offended by it, why bring it up?
Of all the ways to defend the use of the phrase "Jesus loves you", you chose to simply hurl a curse word?
WWJD
LOL. He would forgive the nasty, awful, personal, anti-Christian things we write about you.
My guess is, you just can't leave well enough alone, that's why you contacted the superintendent's office about a bench that didn't offend you and that's why you're bringing more attention to yourself by posting this here.
Ha! You beat me to it.
Er, me means ya beet me too its. Weather I admits its or not.
Sorry but that was my first response. We here in Georgia are full of transplants who know what is best for us. If it was so great why did they leave? Sorry to offend, but between illegals and knowitalls like this I could not respond nicely.
Thanks for the ping!
So that's the problem.
Well, I'm sure a member of the PTA with a magic marker could write a little disclaimer on the bench. . .you know, in small letters, just below 'Jesus loves you'.
Problem solved.
Their, they're now. Its okay, your doing just fine with you're language skills.
You're quite welcome.
The Person involved, Mr. Bernknof, reminds me of Forest Gump: Stupid is as stupid does.
Mr. Bernknof has contridicted himself so many times it's a shame.
Bless his heart.
Well, thank you for clearing that up.
Just wanted you to see this. I think we should have an informal debate on whether Mr. Bernknopf is a communist, liberal, CNN guy.
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