I received this in an email but I checked for its' truthfulness. When will we, as this Principal did, stand up for what we believe?
This is a statement that was read over the PA system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tennessee, by school Principal, Jody McLoud, on September 1, 2000. It shows clearly just how far this country has gone in the wrong direction.
"It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the National Anthem, to honor God and Country."
Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a Prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law. As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it "an alternate lifestyle," and if someone is offended, that's OK.
I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity, by dispensing condoms and calling it, "safe sex." If someone is offended, that's OK.
I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a "viable means of birth control." If someone is offended, no problem.
I can designate a school day as "Earth Day" and involve students in activities to worship religiously and praise the goddess "Mother Earth" and call it "ecology."
I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depict people with strong, traditional Christian convictions as "simple minded" and "ignorant" and call it "enlightenment."
However, if anyone uses this facility to honor God and to ask Him to bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, then Federal Case Law is violated.
This appears to be inconsistent at best, and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone, except God and His Commandments.
Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical. I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.
For this reason, I shall "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," and refrain from praying at this time.
"However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank God and ask Him, in the name of Jesus, to bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that's not against the law----yet."
One by one, the people in the stands bowed their heads, held hands with one another and began to pray.
They prayed in the stands. They prayed in the team huddles. They prayed at the concession stand and they prayed in the Announcer's Box!
The only place they didn't pray was in the Supreme Court of the United States of America - the Seat of "Justice" in the "one nation, under God."
Somehow, Kingston, Tennessee remembered what so many have forgotten. We are given the Freedom OF Religion, not the Freedom FROM Religion. Praise God that His remnant remains!
Closer to home and to this date:
Judge to side with ACLU in school prayer case in Tangipahoa
12:39 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Michael Kunzelman / Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal judge says he is prepared to side with the American Civil Liberties Union in its lawsuit over a teacher's prayer during a public high school's graduation, one of seven cases the ACLU has filed against the same Louisiana school district.
During a meeting Tuesday with lawyers in the case, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. said he has drafted a ruling that favors the ACLU in its suit against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.
But the judge agreed to wait until at least June 28 to issue that opinion so a settlement could be negotiated, including an agreement for the school board to pay for the ACLU's attorneys fees, court records show.
"The parties agreed that because the only outstanding issues in this case are issues of law, there is no need for a trial in this matter, even in the event the parties cannot agree on a consent order," Duval wrote.
The ACLU sued the school board on behalf of a family that attended a May 2007 graduation ceremony at the PM (Alternative)High School in Hammond. The ACLU says it violated the family members' constitutional rights when a teacher said a prayer during the ceremony.
The teacher's invocation started with, "Lord we thank you for," and ended with, "We pray for these things in Jesus' name, Amen," according to the ACLU's suit.
School board attorney Christopher Moody said his clients concede that the teacher's prayer was an "inadvertent" violation of its policies. The teacher was filling in for an absent student when he gave the invocation and hadn't prepared his remarks, Moody said.
The case was the sixth of seven lawsuits that the ACLU of Louisiana has filed against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board since 1994, according to ACLU attorney Katie Schwartzmann. The ACLU also has sued the school board over prayers in the classrooms, at school board meetings and at football games and over the distribution of Bibles on school property.
Some of the parish's school board members "saw it as their mission to infuse government with religion," Schwartzmann said.
"We're really tired of this fight," she added. "This is not fun for us, either."
Moody suggested that the ACLU is unfairly singling out Tangipahoa Parish because most, if not all, of its cases against the school board are based on complaints from the same family, whose names aren't identified in court papers.
"I don't think we're better or any different than any parish in the state," he said. "They keep making us out to be these demons."
Marjorie Esman, the ACLU chapter's executive director, said schools in other parishes aren't immune to the same constitutional violations.
"But we don't have people reporting them to us in a way that we can act on," she added.
And:
Nov 07, 2003
A lawsuit challenging school prayer in the small Tangipahoa Parish town of
Publisher: Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
By: Aesha Rasheed
Residents of Loranger, La, a small town in Tangipahoa Parish are bewildered to find themselves at the center of a legal battle over prayer in public schools and angry at the notion that there has been too much praying at the local high school.
But most of all they are hurt. They are hurt that one of their own would file a lawsuit anonymously rather than discuss the issue with the community.
"People want to know who stepped on somebody's tail," said Mike Hegwood, pastor of Loranger Baptist Church. "One thing I've learned about this community in the six years that I've been here is people are real -- genuine, honest, real people. This lawsuit, it's just so unlike this community."
On Oct. 14, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the Tangipahoa Parish school system in U.S. District Court on behalf of two Loranger High School students. The complaint, the ACLU's third in the past nine years against Tangipahoa schools for prayer in school, alleges that school officials violated the First Amendment by sanctioning prayers before school assemblies and sporting events and that the students felt compelled to join in or be ostracized.
ACLU of Louisiana Director Joe Cook said Tangipahoa district officials "willfully confuse the public school with Sunday school."
"They don't care about offending people who don't believe the way they do," he said. "They believe silence means consent in this case."
The complaint alleges that religious invocations given before the Tangipahoa Parish School Board meetings also violate the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits government from promoting religion. The case is the first time the ACLU has challenged a Louisiana school board for praying before meetings, and the move could affect virtually every state school board.
As executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association, Freddie Whitford has been present at meetings of
most of the state's 66 school boards. He said he has not been to one that does not pray before board meetings."Just like the (state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) does, just like the Legislature does, all of the boards I have knowledge of start with some sort of invocation," Whitford said.
In the New Orleans area, most school boards open meetings with a prayer, although some are less ecumenical than others. Orleans Parish School Board, for example, routinely invites local ministers to start off their meetings.
"I know that some of this same activity is going on elsewhere," Cook said. "It appears to be more systemic" in Tangipahoa.
Tangipahoa school officials are not talking about the case, but the district's policy lets students pray, though it prohibits prayer mandated or sanctioned by the school.
In Loranger, most people know that praying of some sort was going on at Loranger High School and don't see anything wrong with that. There are those who disagree, of course, but those voices are quieter and less obvious.
Loranger High School Principal Billie Theriot describes the school as a warm and caring place. She has worked hard to cultivate a sense of community at the school and urges her students to welcome loners and people who are different, she said.
She's careful not to talk about specifics of the lawsuit, but she's clearly frustrated and troubled. She said she was blindsided.
"I guess I'm more hurt than anything," she said. "Why didn't this person give us the courtesy of letting us know that something was bothering them?"
Business as usual
Although the lawsuit, and the many versions of what it means, is a hot topic at Loranger High School and around town, Theriot said school is going on as usual.
According to students, Loranger High has changed some of its habits. Students have not been giving a prayer during the morning announcements over the school's public-address system, a sporadic habit before the ACLU sued. Prayers at football games have been led by players instead of coaches.
That Loranger is an overwhelmingly Christian place is evident even in the town's layout. Loranger's two main churches, one Methodist and the other Baptist, are the town's anchors.
Loranger Methodist Church abuts two school campuses, its grounds blending into the play areas of Loranger's elementary and middle schools. Loranger Baptist Church is not much farther away, less than a block from the high school's stadium. The physical proximity is echoed in the close relationship the churches have with the town's schools. From tutoring struggling pupils to
lending space for group meetings to refurbishing and recycling school uniforms, the churches are deeply connected with the schools.
But church members say they and the schools have been careful not to cross legal lines and insist that they confine proselytizing to the church.
"We're very careful that our interactions stay secular," said Emile Tasso, pastor of Loranger Methodist. "We tutor them; we don't preach at them."
Muddied waters
Indeed, as Tasso describes it, his church's tutoring and other school volunteer programs are a model of the relationships President Bush has pushed for between faith-based organizations and public schools. Federal education regulations passed by Congress last year require school systems to promise that they are not interfering with student's rights to pray during school.
Those regulations may be making the issue of school prayer murkier for school administrators, Cook said.
"I think that the guidelines encouraged, somewhat, schools to be more permissive," he said. "But that does not change the law. It did not change what the Supreme Court has said in terms of constitutional behavior."
Cook denies that the ACLU has been overzealous in suing Tangipahoa schools, saying the civil liberties group can introduce complaints only when Bill of Rights violations are brought to its attention by citizens. That Tangipahoa has been the target of ACLU action three times in nine years is a reflection of willful ignorance or stubbornness on the part of school system officials, he said.
"You don't need to have a complaint in order to know what the law is and to obey the law," he said. "The responsibility of the School Board is to know the law and be sure that it's being followed by every school in the parish."
Understandably, most people passing through Tallo's, which is Loranger's main lunch counter and convenience store, didn't know the school system's policy on prayer in school or the ins and outs of First Amendment law. They said they believe that students should be able to pray at school, and they didn't see anything wrong with reciting the Lord's Prayer before kickoff at Friday night football games.
"If we believe, let us pray, and if they don't believe, they don't have to," said Amy Faust, 20, a Loranger High graduate and Southeastern Louisiana University junior. "Especially before a football game. Those boys risk their lives out there."
Brian Sharpe, 30, said he's glad his two children are exposed to Christian beliefs at school and thinks there should be more prayer in school.
"I think we need to go back to the way it was when our parents were in school," Sharpe said.
Like a lot of Loranger residents, Sharpe attributes troubles such as teenage pregnancy and drug use to what he views as a less religious society. They say prayer is the last defense against those social ills.
Indoctrination question
That argument is flawed and doesn't respect parents' rights to rear children according to their own religious beliefs, Cook said.
"Parents should not have to fear that schools are indoctrinating their students," he said.
Cook paints a different image of Loranger as a town that is resistant to those who do not conform. The plaintiffs in the case filed anonymously because they feared retaliation, according to the complaint. Cook said the family has faced threats, but he refused to elaborate, saying that by revealing details he would expose the plaintiffs. He also declined to put the plaintiffs in touch with a reporter.
Theriot said she's not aware of any threats and has urged students to respect the rights of the plaintiffs to sue. Loranger parents and church leaders said they've given the same message.
"I told all of my kids that if they don't have something positive to say, don't say anything," said Suzy McGovern, a parent and leader of the youth group at Loranger Methodist Church. "I said, 'If you approach these kids and say hurtful things or in a sarcastic way, guess what, guys: You're not acting like the Christians you are supposed to be.' "
McGovern said she has asked students whether they witnessed or participated in harassment, and they told her they had not.
In Loranger, the general response has been to pray.
As soon as news of the lawsuit spread, businesses and churches began putting up signs with messages such as: "Pray for the ACLU" and "Pray for Our Schools."
Before Loranger's homecoming football game against Vandore High School, McGovern organized a massive prayer vigil at the town's stadium.
"It was so wonderful to see so many people standing up for what they believe," she said.
Townspeople who are inclined to see a bright spot in the lawsuit say it has strengthened the community and taught students about constitutional rights.
"All this lawsuit has done is bring the Christians in this community together," Baptist pastor Hegwood said.
