RSS - Posts
Its been almost 20 years ago since I worked in a classroom sitting in one of our local public schools. I still cannot grasp how radically the public school system has changed in America since then. Not one teacher I knew back then, would have given a failing grade to this picture (the one at the top)…and would have seriously questioned the emotional and/or mental health of the kids who submitted the last two pictures.
*****
From News For Christians, and originally posted at michellemalkin.com
The Alliance Defense Fund exposes the latest religious double standards case in our government schools. First, check out these three pieces of student art:
A)
B)
C)
They are all similar in quality, so why did B) and C) get passing marks while the student who drew A) failed?
Couldn’t have anything to do with the Biblical passage, could it? Why, yes. Yes, it did:
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Tomah Area School District over an unconstitutional policy that bars religious free speech. Citing a policy prohibiting depictions of “blood, violence, sexual connotations, [or] religious beliefs,” officials penalized a Christian student for his artwork depicting a Bible verse and a cross but did not penalize students who included demonic illustrations in their artwork.
“Christian students shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs. It is unconstitutional for the school to punish students simply because they choose to exercise their First Amendment rights,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. “Further, teachers are not permitted to censor Christian religious expression in artwork while at the same time allowing other types of religious depictions.”
A student at Tomah High School drew a landscape picture for an art class containing a road, clouds, and mountains with a cross in the background and the words “JOHN 3:16 – A sign of love” written in the sky. The teacher of the class told the student to either remove the scriptural reference or cover it up with a border.
The teacher cited a document that the student and all other students in the class had been required to sign at the beginning of the semester which prevented them from creating artwork with the prohibited depictions. After the teacher said that the student had “signed away his First Amendment rights,” the student respectfully protested by tearing the signed document in half.
“The student was correct. A public school cannot require students to sign away their constitutional right to free speech and religious expression,” Cortman explained. “Furthermore, other students created artwork in violation of this illegitimate policy, but no action was taken against them. Only our client was singled out.”
The teacher gave the student a grade of zero for the assignment. The student also received two detentions.
Filed under: Persecution, Watching Signs
It is a spiritual war…
they who do such don’t realize it is a spiritual war.
and taking the matter into a secular courtroom won’t help either.
whatever happened to Joyful persecution?
he/she should be taught that this will happen and even tho it is against their rights, one cannot expect to obtain mercy from the secular world, but they can expect persecution.
we cannot expect worldly people to understand; for Jesus did not lie to us and tell us everyone was going to be Joyed to listen to our expressions or view our expressions of Him whether in tongue or in art.
I feel for the kid, yet I believe we do forfeit our rights in this world when we walk the Christlike Faith.
You know pj… after viewing the last pic, it came to me later why this pic was as if I had seen it before.
I did see it before.
The only thing missing is the mask across the eyes.
some 4 or so years ago?
Think i recall that…
I wasn’t kidding in the OP….if any of the teachers i worked with back then had been handed drawings like the last two, there would have been great concern for the child.
Part of my job included keeping files on specific children who any of the teachers thought might be (by their behavior or some hint dropped, etc) abused at home in any way, or if they demonstrated unusual antisocial behavior—those pics would have been seen as a possible warning of some type of deep problem: either at home, or within the child.
funny how much things have changed…