{"id":395131,"date":"2010-03-06T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T05:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/papundits.wordpress.com\/?p=32168"},"modified":"2010-03-06T00:01:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T05:01:29","slug":"imagine-no-god-in-our-nation%e2%80%99s-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/395131","title":{"rendered":"Imagine No God In Our Nation\u2019s Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colleen Kaveney\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

All high school math teacher Bradley Johnson wanted to do was honor our nation\u2019s history and religious heritage the same way he always had. For twenty five years<\/a>, a red, white and blue-striped banner adorned his classroom walls with national maxims such as \u201cIn God We Trust,\u201d \u201cOne Nation Under God, \u201c \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d and \u201cGod Shed his Grace On Thee.\u201d A second banner accompanied it, containing an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, \u201cAll Men are Created Equal and They Are Endowed by Their Creator.\u201d<\/p>\n

But displaying a portion of the Declaration of Independence and other national mottos was just too offensive to the Poway Unified School District in San Diego. It ordered Johnson to remove the banners from his classroom because they \u201cover-emphasized\u201d God \u2013 one school official said it might \u201coffend\u201d Muslim students. Fortunately, Johnson went to federal court to fight this absurd order (represented by the Thomas More Law Center<\/a>), and even more fortunately, given that California is in the 9th Circuit, the most liberal appeals circuit in the nation, a federal judge found on February 26 that the school board\u2019s actions violated Mr. Johnson\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Judge Roger T. Benitez did not allow the censorship because \u201cit has been clear for over 90 years that teachers do not lose their constitutional rights inside the schoolhouse gate, and that government may not squelch one viewpoint while favoring another.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out that the school district allowed teachers to display other posters promoting controversial political issues such as gay rights and global warming, and banners showing other religious preferences such as Tibetan prayer flags, Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s \u201cSeven Social Sins,\u201d and John Lennon and the lyrics of his song \u201cImagine,\u201d which opens with lyrics about no heaven, no hell, and no religion. The school district just seemed to have a problem with Christian religious and American patriotic sentiments.<\/p>\n

No student, parent or school administrator had ever objected to Johnson\u2019s banners \u2013 until January 23, 2007, when the entire school board ordered Johnson to remove the posters which \u201cconveyed a Judeo-Christian viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Benitez was scathing in his denunciation of the school board, which apparently feared that \u201cstudents are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God\u2019s place in American history and culture.\u201d The fact that \u201cGod places prominently in our Nation\u2019s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson\u2019s public high school classroom walls.\u201d The board not only failed to comply with the long-standing policy that \u201ca teacher\u2019s classroom walls serve as a limited public forum for a teacher to convey non-curriculum messages,\u201d but also went so far as to silence Johnson\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Judge Benitez cracked down on the board\u2019s bias, concluding that \u201cby squelching Johnson\u2019s patriotic and religious viewpoint, while permitting speech promoting Buddhist, Hindu, and anti-religious viewpoints, Defendants clearly abridged Johnson\u2019s constitutional free speech rights.\u201d An \u201cimaginary\u201d Islamic student was \u201cnot entitled to a heckler\u2019s veto on a teacher\u2019s passive, popular or unpopular, expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a common-sense decision that hostility towards our nation\u2019s history, its religious heritage, and expressions of patriotism will not be tolerated in our public school classrooms. Hopefully, other school boards around the country will take notice.<\/p>\n

Collen Kaveney currently is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation<\/a>, and she contributes posts to The Foundry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more informative articles at Heritage \u2013 The Foundry<\/a><\/p>\n

Filed under: America (USA)<\/a>, Education<\/a>, Edukashun idjots<\/a>, GOD<\/a>, Liberals<\/a>, Lily-Livered Liberals<\/a>, Limp-Wrist Liberals<\/a>, Propaganda<\/a>, Public Opinion<\/a> Tagged: Education Standards<\/a>, Heritage – The Foundry<\/a>, Religious Freedom<\/a>, Tony<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Colleen Kaveney All high school math teacher Bradley Johnson wanted to do was honor our nation\u2019s history and religious heritage the same way he always had. For twenty five years, a red, white and blue-striped banner adorned his classroom walls with national maxims such as \u201cIn God We Trust,\u201d \u201cOne Nation Under God, \u201c […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}