Posted on 05/08/2006 5:38:35 PM PDT by dukeman
SPIVEY’S CORNER, NC — The Sampson County school system stands behind a decision to suspend a student for passing out Christian leaflets at Midway High School, Superintendent Stewart Hobbs said Friday.
Hobbs said the student was given in-school suspension for insubordination after disobeying the principal about distributing the fliers.
The handouts, which presented a Christian viewpoint on homosexuality, caused a disturbance in the school and prompted some students, teachers and a parent to complain, Hobbs said.
But the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, said the student, Benjamin Arthurs, was wrongfully punished for expressing his religious beliefs. The group has filed a federal lawsuit against the school system, saying it violated Arthurs’ freedom of speech by not allowing him to wear a Day of Truth shirt and to pass out the leaflets during noninstructional time.
“That, in our opinion, is unconstitutional,” said David Cortman, a lawyer with the alliance.
Hobbs said the student was allowed to wear the shirt but told not to hand out the fliers. “The only thing the T-shirt said was, ‘Day of Truth,’ and we felt that was not forcing his religion on others,” Hobbs said. The handouts, however, did present religious views, he said.
The alliance warned the school system that it would sue if the student was not allowed to distribute the leaflets, Hobbs said. Educators have yet to receive a copy of the lawsuit. The student was given in-school suspension on Monday, Hobbs said, but chose out-of-school suspension.
Hobbs and Midway High Principal Gaynor Canady are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Arthurs, a ninth-grader, handed out the fliers following the April 26 Day of Silence, an event promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. He asked Canady if he could wear the shirt and hand out Day of Truth cards, the lawsuit said. He was told he could not wear a religious T-shirt or distribute religious literature because that would be “pushing his religion on others,” the lawsuit said, and “religion is not allowed in school.”
His mother, Rebecca Arthurs, declined to comment when reached by phone Friday. She referred questions to the family’s lawyer at the Alliance Defense Fund.
Cortman said it is unfair that the school system allowed students to participate in the Day of Silence but did not let Arthurs express his Christian views. Day of Silence is a nationwide movement that allows students to protest anti-homosexual bullying and discrimination. Students hand out fliers and remain silent throughout the day.
Day of Truth
The Day of Truth, which is held after the Day of Silence, was established by the Alliance Defense Fund to express the Christian perspective on homosexuality.
“School officials shouldn’t be treating religious students any differently than they treat other students,” Cortman said, “and that’s exactly what is happening here.”
According to the lawsuit, Arthurs belongs to the Bible Club, the National Honor Society and Who’s Who of American High School students. The lawsuit says his religious beliefs “compel him to share his faith and to address relevant subjects from a Biblical point of view with other students.”
In the lawsuit, the alliance is asking that Arthurs’ in-school suspension be removed from his record and that the school system write a policy giving students the right to free speech including religious speech.
The Alliance Defense Fund was started in 1993 by the leaders of more than 35 ministries to advocate religious freedom, according to its Web site. The site said the group aims to defend religious liberty through litigation and other actions.
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Delilah could not be reached for comment.
Self-centred little punk should learn to obey school rules
Self-centered little punk?
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I tend to think that the little tails trying so hard to use the courts to wag the big dogs in society are much, much, MUCH more self-centered and extremely punkish.
We have a match!
The group has filed a federal lawsuit against the school system, saying it violated Arthurs’ freedom of speech by not allowing him to wear a Day of Truth shirt and to pass out the leaflets during noninstructional time
Obviously. I mean, we can't have a contrarian viewpoint represented in a place of learning. Certain viewpoints must never be represented because "religion is not allowed in school." Except, of course, secularism, which is "neutrality" because it is aggressively atheistic.
sarcasm/
And what this lad did would scarcely have rated a yawn in the first half of the 20th century. Who's trying to wag the tail and who wants it to just stay put?
Thanks.
But that's not the tail wagging the dog.
The proportion of Christians in the culture is consistently found to be in the 70-80% range.
Obviously. I mean, we can't have a contrarian viewpoint represented in a place of learning. Certain viewpoints must never be represented because "religion is not allowed in school." Except, of course, secularism, which is "neutrality" because it is aggressively atheistic.
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Actually, ISLAM and WITCHCRAFT and a host of other RELIGIONS are fine.
It's virtually always ONLY CHRISTIANITY that is raged, ranted and ruled against.
Talk about duplicity, hypocrisy etc.
Ahhhh, but the NWO folks have spoken . . .
NC bump. Biggest county in the state IIRC
Landlocked that is. Dare may be larger
Interesting how the other students were allowed to pass out literature during the day of silence.
Did the school officially sanction everyone else's handouts?
Obviously "Gaynor" didn't get where he/she is today by being studious.
They are here. Can't just have their lives; but insist on making the personal "political".
Bloody shame.
When I start to worry that I'm not providing an education equivalent to the government schools, something like this comes up!
At the time I was HomeSchooling, the School Union-ists And Pub Ed Marxists were trying to prohibit Homeschoolers from being allowed in the colleges. My kids broke the mold and I had to go through some face-on showdowns with "officials".
But my kids were punished by activist academics. Singling them out as evil, rotten students who didn't belong at college. Accusing my kids, in the classroom of being "racists". Their thinking? My kids were taking the classroom spot of more "worthy minorities".
My kids retorted -- that minorities had the same opportunities, if not more, to apply to the college. So, we then had to fight the "system" to make those teachers stop automatically giving D's to every paper and assignment handed in by my kids.
One college professor even went so far as to say: "Look, I'll allow you to sit in my classroom, but shut your mouth".
My kid had to hold me back. My child reasoned with me. She said "Mom? There are at least 26 students in her class". The female professor speaks "diversity and tolerance" and her treatment of me might just wake up some of the other students." My daughter was 14 when this happened.
And my daughter refused to shut her mouth in this female professor's class. Refused. When she had something to say in the class, she said it. It did wake students up.
I ate Tums.
I don't think I could handle that much stress :-). I guess we'll find out next year, when Anoreth is old enough to take community college classes. Maybe we can find something without nutty leftists!
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