Posted on 08/22/2005 2:07:55 PM PDT by bygrace85
A civil liberties group has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against a Virginia school on behalf of a Spanish teacher whose religious-themed posters were removed from his classroom while he was out sick.
The Rutherford Institute is representing William Lee, a public school teacher at Tabb High School in Yorktown, Va., and faculty sponsor of an approved Christian club called First Priority.
"Academic freedom is a core First Amendment value," said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, in a statement. "The real question is whether William Lee has the same free speech rights as other teachers."
In the beginning of the school year, Lee posted materials in his class, which include among other things: a poster on the National Day of Prayer, one depicting George Washington praying at Valley Forge, a newspaper article about the religious faith of President Bush with a picture showing Bush praying, and an article about former Attorney General John Ashcroft and his prayer meetings with staff members.
According to the Rutherford Institute, Lee received no complaints from parents, students or staff about the materials, but after returning from sick leave that began in October 2004, he found some of the materials regarding Christian religious expression were gone.
Lee said other materials, which were religious in nature but did not relate to the Christian experience specifically, were not removed.
I know I'm late posting this article, but I've been busy getting my first year college student ready for school. I searched and searched for the article on FR but couldn't find it and wanted to get input from other Freepers about this topic.
seems like the work of one disturbed individual. Hopefully the teacher made all efforts to find out about/resolve this before the lawsuit. Maybe a poster of che guevera wouldn't have been removed.
Since when is praying the practice of only Christians? If it had Osama kneeling in Mecca it would have been okay though, right?
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the teacher's views, why would anyone think that a teacher had an entitlement to post whatever he liked on the walls of a school building?
He's well justified in being annoyed, and the citizenry would be well justified in being upset about this official action, but it is absurd to suggest that he has a Constitutional right to put up posters on someone else's walls.
If the official club he sponsors meets in his room, I would imagine that they would be allowed to use a portion of the walls for club materials.
INTRE - The First Amendment is dead!
lighten up. When I was in middle school my best friend brought in his 12-gauge shotgun for show and tell. Things have changed, my friend. Those walls are my walls. A teacher is entitled to teach. He can't post whatever he likes, (playboy centrefold?) but come one, the idea is to stimulate thought and help children see different points of view and learn about things and help them form their own opinion. Unfortunately to much indoctrination these days. put a poster of ubl with crosshairs on his perverted face and I am all for that..
irrelevent. The club was a christian club, therefore has nothing to do with judaism, allah,bin laden, dalai lama and so on and so forth. Your argument is valid, but belongs elsewhere perhaps.
Supposedly the posters were on display for all of his Spanish classes, also. This is the excerpt I was concerned about: "Lee said other materials, which were religious in nature but did not relate to the Christian experience specifically, were not removed." Apparently this is a discrimination against the Christian religion only.
what? Christians being discriminated against? I don't believe it. I missed that part - thanks for the clarification...
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