Posted on 06/02/2011 5:48:40 PM PDT by metmom
A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony.
Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Bierys order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including prayer and amen.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturdays graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would suffer irreparable harm if anyone prayed at the ceremony.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district is in the process of appealing the ruling, and his office has agreed to file a brief in their support.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It was done in several places last year iirc - everyone in one instance all stood up and recited the Lord's prayer in defiance of the school administration and the ACLU. Not one they they could do about it except in once case cut the microphone off - but that didn't stop it either.
We will suffer? Why?
The Constitution doesn't give the federal government any control over education in any of the states.
According to the Constitution that is a States Right!
Butt out overblown self-important Federal government.
If you want to do something in individual states, stop the illegals entering border states. That is your Constitutional DUTY!.
Disband he Dept of Education, Dept of Transportation and send all the money collected back to the states from which it was stolen to feed fat CAT bureaucRATS.
And while you are at it, disband the EPA and drill baby drill!
The EPA does more harm to the environment with all of their fake causes than those which they regulate.
My question for the majority is do you really want the school district to turn over a truly public free speech mic to anyone at a government sanctioned school activity?
You signed up today just to post that?
IBTZ
Oh, and I noticed that you had the presence of mind to remove colofornian’s screen name from the *To* field.
What was your previous screen name?
“What does a federal judge have do with a public school in one of the states in the United States of America?”
The same thing SCOTUS did in McDonald v. Chicago when it protected our 2nd Amendment rights against infringements by local and state governments. It’s called the 14th Amendment.
**********************************
What an excellent idea!
“If Christians really want to fight this infringement of their exercise of religion, they should have the Christian students pick up their diplomas at school and then meet at a local church for a service of thanksgiving that these young people have graduated. Cut the school completely out of the celebration. Let this whiny atheist and his parents and the cowards in the school administration hold their very short anti-God graduation on school grounds.”
I thought this was an excellent idea as well. Now all they have to do is decide which church all the students and parents are willing to attend.
Excellent plan!
I’m opposed to the idea. If the majority of students wish to have a prayer as part of their graduation, why should they be denied? The First Amendment clearly supports their wishes.
Perhaps in the future a vote should be taken every year. The graduating students, and ONLY those who will graduate, can vote on whether to include prayer as part of the formal graduation service. THAT would be a reasonable compromise.
That’s a kid who might very well receive irreperable harm, one way or another...
And one who is not going to be very welcome at the post graduating party...
Apples and oranges aren’t even good together as a salad, much less in politics.
The 14th supports my statement, as well as the 10th.
Yes; we do.
Sorry;l but the Constitution 'protects' nothing. It merely points them out. WE have to do our OWN protecting.
(I didn’t think I needed to type ‘reparable damage’ with a /sarc tag following...)
Taking the 'free' money offered by the Feds gave them control.
NO one pays for their FIRST hit of illegal drugs!
So true. They’re worried about “irreparable harm” if the prayer is included? This kid is going to suffer far worse than listening to something he doesn’t like after this mess.
And I’m not talking about physical harm. I’m talking about social sanctions, which to teenagers are the worst thing in the world.
It works for the Amish!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.