Posted on 10/29/2007 7:41:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO - A federal judge refused Monday to temporarily bar schools from observing a brief period of prayer or reflective silence for students, but he allowed a lawsuit contesting the practice to move forward.
U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman told talk-radio host Rob Sherman, who filed the suit, and attorneys for school District 214 and the state to come back to court on Nov. 14 to explore the issue further.
Sherman's 14-year-old daughter, Dawn, is a student in the district at Buffalo Grove High School. She and her father maintain that the new law is just another round in the long-running battle over prayer in school and as such violates the U.S. Constitution.
"The whole purpose of this law is to get religion into the public schools," Rob Sherman told reporters as he left the courthouse.
The Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act already had allowed Illinois schools to have a moment of silence at the start of every school day if they wished to do so. Legislators, overriding a veto by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's veto this month, voted to make the observances mandatory.
School district representatives told the judge that they would enforce the law in neutral fashion with a 15-second moment of silence that made no reference to religion.
Sherman is an outspoken atheist who has gone to court before in an effort to get religious symbols out of the public sphere.
what a loser this Sherman person is.
September 16: Sherman gets "God Bless America" removed from Buffalo Grove High School homecoming. Dawn Sherman, my 14-year-old daughter (pictured with Daddy in January, 1998), is a freshman at BGHS. One of the first things Dawn did upon starting the school year was to apply for membership in the Student Council, so she could be part of a team to challenge any injustice that Dawn came across at school.
Dawn was promptly appointed to the Student Council by school administrators. Last week, school administrators presented to the Student Council, for their comments, a list of songs that were planned for homecoming. One of the songs was "God Bless America." Dawn immediately objected to the inclusion of that song, on the grounds that songs at public schools should be secular. The Student Council and school administrators both concurred that Dawn was correct, so school administrators removed "God Bless America" from homecoming. Thank you, Dawn, for banishing God from BGHS. Does this prove that Dawn is more powerful that God? It certainly proves that one person can make a difference, especially if the last name of that person is "Sherman." Don't mess with Dawn.
isn’t that the equivalent of Child abuse?
What parent would send their 14 year old to school with a political agenda and be okay with that?
He should be drawn and villified.
What if she wants to believe in a higher purpose?
He’s gonna shoot her or something?
Sherman lives three blocks from me. He's also trying to get a local Korean church shut down, because they give music lessons at night. (How dare they!)
His license plate is "ATHEIST."
A walking illustration of "Little Man Syndrome."
I'd love to get about a hundred bumper stickers that say:
and pass them out at all the local churches. I'd have greater need for the full armour of God at that point....
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