Posted on 05/05/2014 4:11:06 PM PDT by servo1969
A Florida school teacher humiliated a 12-year-old boy in front of an entire class after she caught him reading the Bible during free reading time.
The teacher, at Park Lakes Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, ordered Giovanni Rubeo to pick up the telephone on her desk and call his parents.
As the other students watched, the teacher left a terse message on the family’s answering machine.
“I noticed that he has a book – a religious book – in the classroom,” she said on the recording. “He’s not permitted to read those books in my classroom.”
The Liberty Institute, a legal firm that specializes in religious liberty issues, is now representing the Rubeo family. They are demanding that Giovanni be allowed to read his Bible during free reading time. They also want the school to issue a written apology to the boy.
“This is the most shocking piece of evidence I’ve seen in the 12 years of religious liberty work that I’ve been doing,” said Hiram Sasser, the Liberty Institute’s director of litigation.
I reached out to the superintendent of Broward County Schools as well as the chairman of the school board. Neither returned my messages.
Last Christmas Giovanni received a Bible from his local church. It quickly became a prized possession and one of his favorite books to read.
“I love reading my Bible any time that I’m allowed to read it,” the boy told me in a telephone conservation.
So that’s why Giovanni brought his Bible to school -- to read his Bible during a 90-minute session designated for free reading.
In February and March, the boy’s teacher ordered him to stop reading his Bible. During those instances, the child complied with his teacher’s demands. But, when his father discovered what happened, he began investigating and determined the school was violating his son’s Constitutional rights.
From that point on, Rubeo told his son that if his teacher or anyone else at the school told him he could not read his Bible during free reading time, he was to politely ask the teacher to call home. And that’s what happened on April 8. When the children pulled out their books, the teacher immediately targeted Giovanni.
“When I was reading my Bible, she said, ‘Giovanni, what book is that?’ I was a little afraid,” he told me. “She told me to put it on her desk and I said no.”
When Giovanni conveyed his father’s instructions, she ordered him to walk to the front of the class and call home – in front of the entire class. Rubeo was not at home, so the teacher left a message – of which I have a copy.
“I don’t understand why a school would want to keep a child from reading his Bible during free reading time,” he told me. “And I’ve never gotten an answer to that question.”
After he received the teacher’s message, Rubeo contacted the school. He said the principal said she would have to turn the matter over to their legal department. Rubeo then wrote a letter to the school ordering them to cease and desist the harassment of his son.
“This it to give you written notice to stop breaking the law & violating my son Giovanni Rubeo’s constitution first amendment right of free speech and religious expression,” the letter states. “Do NOT tell my son he cannot read his Bible during free reading hours during class or any time when students are allowed to read books of their choice.”
Liberty Institute provided me with a response from Cynthia Dias, the principal of the school. “You child is permitted to read the Bible before school, after school and during lunch, in accordance to the law,” the letter states.
This, friends, is what we call parsing words. Notice that the principal avoided the issue. This is about letting a child read a Bible during free reading time.
Sasser said the school violated the boy’s constitutional rights. He also accused them of viewpoint discrimination, restricting the free exercise of religion and engaging in hostility towards religion.
He cited U.S. Department of Education guidance that allows for students to read their Bibles during non-instructional time. It reads in part, "...students students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour, or other noninstructional time to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities."
“This is a pretty serious situation,” Sasser said. As that audio recording indicates"there’s a big problem in our public schools."
So this is what it’s come to, folks. School teachers are now publicly shaming boys and girls who read the Bible. Had the kid the kid been reading "Fifty Shades of Gray," he probably would’ve been given a gold star.
Besides the spiritual benefit the boy will get from reading the Bible, he is exposing himself one of the great works of literature. Later on, when he reads other literature, he will pick up on biblical references that other kids won’t have a clue about. He is likely to become a better reader and a better writer. And he will become aware of one of the cornerstones of our civilization.
That used to be what education was about.
God bless him.
Just - WOW!
“You can’t read a Bible because Rev Martin Luther King read a Bible”.
C O M M I E B I T C H. Am I close?
Let’s see..
55-59 yrs old
Hates Bible.
Owns property in PLANTATION, FL.
Total Value of Property....$191,780
Sq. Ft.......1465
Year Built...1961
Last sale date.....09/29/1995
Source - Broward County, FL property tax assessment data, Fort Lauderdale, Googled
She’s a demonRat alright. Voter record says so.
Hey, I was trying to be nice...
Oh, well.
http://www.whitepages.com/name/Swornia-D-Thomas/Plantation-FL/4cmcxhi
Just curious-—why would the stats on her property matter?
.
They don’t matter at all.
They are however a matter of public record.
As is her harassment of small helpless children’s religious views.
“I noticed that he has a book – a religious book – in the classroom,” she said on the recording. “He’s not permitted to read those books in my classroom.”
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Power Trip. Big Bully teacher pushing little kid around. School Board needs to address her big ego - she thinks she sets the rules instead of them.
Wonder what would have happened, if that had been a little kid reading the Koran? If she had treated such a child the same way she treated this child, you can bet that the reaction of the parents wouldn’t have been a polite letter.
This teacher should be fired - unfortunately she will just be rehired in a neighboring district in a school run by a fellow minion of satan.
Id like to see that “educator” tell Abdul he cant read his koran...
Is free-reading time noninstructional time? Millions of dollars will be spent on attorneys to answer that question.
Why do they keep the students ignorant?
So they can become good dependable Dummycrat voters in the future.
“Owns property in PLANTATION, FL.”
How ironic, further proof the Dems have locked up the Plantation, there just is no leaving.
Nonsense!
The apology should in person and in front of the boy's parents and the school administrator.
Swornia ..oh....kay
“mam youve violated that young mans constitutionally protected GOD GIVEN RIGHTS...do you understand that?
Blink Once for No...Twice for yes!...
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