DADT enters the world of school prayer: Liberals, unite!

posted at 12:28 pm on October 1, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Repression ]   

Now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been repealed as the law of the land, liberal activists can move on to their next assignment. No, I don’t mean persuading Congress to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act so military chaplains can perform same-sex unions. That can wait. A more pressing human rights violation demands their immediate attention in Sumner County, Tennessee.

The Tennessean reported this past Monday:

In anticipation of the global annual event that serves to encourage prayer for students, Sumner school officials recently distributed guidelines telling school staff if they choose to pray on campus, it must be done out of sight and earshot of students.

The “global event” referred to in the news story is See You at the Pole, a school prayer ritual begun in 1990 by ten students that has since mushroomed into a million-students rally. According to the SYAP website, students at participating schools meet at the flagpole before class “to lift up their friends, families, teachers, school, and nation to God.”

The message from school officials to teachers meanwhile is pretty clear. If you feel impelled to exercise your spirituality, take it outside—literally. If you don’t, the guidelines state, “it is possible for a student to confuse a teacher or administrator’s personal speech with their official speech.”Can’t have that happening.

Needless to say the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is on the case. They filed a lawsuit filed in May against the Sumner County Board of Education accusing the district of promoting Christianity. A jury trail is scheduled for June of 2012 and the school could prevail, but in the meantime, the district has been only too happy to knuckle under to the ACLU. Could it be that there are members of the school board who are also civil libertarians?

For the record, Sumner County School District is the same one that made news last week for admonishing its football coaches from bowing their heads during a student-led prayer.

Oh, and as to liberals lining up behind teachers, arguing on behalf of their constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of religion? Don’t bet on it. Maybe if the teachers were Muslim, the story might be different. Then again….

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