Christmas Symbols Don't Make The Grade In US Schools.

WASHINGTON, D.C., (Zenit.org).- Despite the rise of religious sensibilities in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Christmas is an unwelcome holiday in many U.S. public schools this year, reports the Washington Times.

A Frederick County, Maryland, school employee was told by an administrator that employees would be banned from handing out Christmas cards in the school because cards with a Christian message "may not be a legally protected right on a public school campus."

A fourth-grader in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was prohibited from handing out religious Christmas cards to classmates.

Two middle school students in Rochester, Minnesota, were disciplined for wearing red and green scarves in a Christmas skit and for ending the skit by saying, "We hope you all have a merry Christmas."

Two ninth-graders in Plymouth, Massachusetts, were told they could not create Christmas cards that say "Merry Christmas" or depict a nativity scene.

A teacher in Plymouth, Illinois, was warned by her principal not to read a book about Christmas to her second-grade students. The book was in the school´s library.

The superintendent of the Silverton, Oregon, school district had students remove all "religious" holiday decorations from their lockers but allowed secular decorations.

The county school board in Covington, Georgia, deleted the word "Christmas" from the school calendar after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened legal action.

"We´re getting besieged," said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based organization that provides legal help in cases involving religious bias.

Whitehead said his group has received at least 50 complaints or inquiries, including the above examples, about situations in which students or teachers were told that various Christmas decorations or messages were banned at their schools.

In nearly all cases, the Rutherford Institute informed the complainants that school officials overstepped their bounds.

Meanwhile, the Catholic League, the nation´s largest Catholic civil rights organization, is protesting a policy in New York public schools that allows the display of the Jewish menorah and the Muslim star and crescent, but not the Christian nativity.

"They are discriminating against Christians; we´re contemplating a lawsuit," said league spokesman Patrick Scully told the Washington Times.

Problems arose when the Catholic League received a copy of a memo that Fran Levy, principal of the Thomas Jefferson Magnet School of Humanities in Flushing, New York, issued teachers Nov. 30.

In the memo, Levy urged teachers to "bring in Muslim, Kwanzaa and Jewish secular symbols."

"I would like to display these religious symbols equally," the principal said, apparently unaware that Kwanzaa is a nonreligious celebration.

It discovered that a Christmas tree had been put up at the school, but Levy had ordered it to be taken down.

She said the tree was too large, compared with the menorah and the crescent and star.

The Christmas tree was displayed again after the Catholic League complained to New York school officials.

But they rejected the league´s demand that a nativity scene also be displayed at the school alongside what the league described as other "religious symbols."

The league was surprised to receive a copy of a memo on holiday displays, issued by the general counsel to Harold Levy, chancellor of New York City Public Schools.

The general counsel´s office said: "The display of secular holiday symbol decorations is permitted. Such symbols include, but are not limited to, Christmas trees, menorahs, and the star and crescent."

Harold Levy (no relation to the school principal) reiterated this in a statement.

But of the league´s bid for a nativity scene, he said, "The Supreme Court has previously refused to permit erection of a nativity scene on public property."

The Catholic League immediately fired back a letter to Harold Levy, disputing his statement about the Supreme Court´s rulings on nativity scenes.

In the letter, William A. Donohue, league president, cited a 1984 high court decision that, in his words, held that "religious symbols placed next to secular symbols pass constitutional muster because the government is not endorsing religion."

Donohue noted that another high court ruling, five years later, found that a menorah placed on the steps of a Pittsburgh courthouse was permissible because it was next to a Christmas tree.

But the court said a nativity scene erected in the government complex was not constitutional because it stood alone.

Whitehead confirmed those legal opinions and said he believes the Catholic League´s arguments are correct.

Asked if Harold Levy now believes a nativity scene could be displayed in a New York public school, if it were grouped with other religious and secular symbols, Margie Feinberg, the chancellor´s spokeswoman, said Levy is reviewing the matter.

Two ninth-graders in Plymouth, Massachusetts, were told they could not create Christmas cards that say "Merry Christmas" or depict a nativity scene.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof";

I think that quite a few lawsuits are in order.

Good post, but you're much too kind in using the label Athiest to describe those who want all reference to Christianity out of society. They are, plain and simple, bigots and haters.

To be honest, I'm not particularly religious in the organized sense. But those whose agenda is to demonize the religion and the religious freedom our country was founded on must be stopped. If it can't be accomplished through the courts and adherence to the constitution, the haters will reap what they sow.

I am not athiest and I do not have a problem with silent prayer in school. Thanksgiving is Americana the same as Christmas used to be. What changed it??

I do however have a problem with ANY religion having a major influence over the students and feel the same for sex ed being taught in the school system -- parents should be the influence over these moral issues.

The ACLU has done "some" good and it seems alot bad. It seems to me that nowadays the issues are either black or white and there is no middle. It does seem to me that schools are free to celebrate other "nations" traditions while our nation shrinks in the background. Wasn't it our nation that lost its citizens through various wars -- was this what their sacrifice was all about??? GWB was reading to the Muslim children today!! Why is our president reading to specifically Muslim children? Or is this "politically correct" stuff because we are to believe the poor abused Muslims in the United States do not believe in elimination of the infidels. sarcasim intended. It sickens me and I like GWB.

Fighting back through the courts is the wrong answer. It is over-litigation, the search for a judicial solution to every private wrong, that has brought us to the point where school officials are afraid to have students utter a word about Christmas for fear of a lawsuit. All it takes is informed citizens. Some of the actions mentioned in this article were patently unconstitutional; some were borderline. Parents or other members of the community need to approach the school administrators and state the Constitutional case for why the acts are unconstitutional with proper documentation. Then the administrators would be able to grab some sack and uphold the Constitution. It's the American way.

-Clay

But the reason that public school administrators are engaging in such foolishness is that it has become Liberal "Conventional Wisdom" that such actions are madated by a non-existant Constitutional right to Freedom from Religion.

Only by establishing case law rulings, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, can we get back to the original intent of the First Amendment.

that has brought us to the point where school officials are afraid to have students utter a word about Christmas for fear of a lawsuit.

Correct. That is what I stated in #7- School officials have been bludgeoned into submission by this subversive group, who with the complicity of their crony judges, have rewritten the constitution

I'm cynical enought to believe that parental pressure or pressure from the community would not be enough considering the legal precedents from these myriad aclu suits. School officials hands are tied until new cases set new precedents. Therefore, I think the first step is to use the courts. If that isn't effective, then the citizens have the right to achieve justice otherwise.

It is over-litigation, the search for a judicial solution to every private wrong

Absolute correct. But this is not a private wrong. Should a gov't school employee not follow the dictates of his superiors, what do think would be the result? Again, until there is some court decided legal precedent to open a small hole, no gain will be made, much less a score. imo.

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