Georgia public school teachers humiliate kids for not praying to ‘God our Father’: lawsuit

[demmiblue]

Source: Raw Story

The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Emanuel County School System in Swainsboro, Georgia after a teacher insisted that the children of atheists participate in daily prayers.

According to the lawsuit, teacher Kaytrene Bright and Cel Thompson forced the children of anonymous plaintiffs Jane and John Doe to join their classmates in prayer or leave the classroom.

<snip>

When John and Jane Doe learned of this, they contacted Swainsboro Primary School Principal Valorie Watkins, who told them that it they didn’t want their children to pray, their only recourse would be to have their children leave the classroom while the other children offered thanks to God.

Once this policy was initiated, Jamie told her parents that she began being teased by other students. Jesse said that his teacher, Kaytrene Bright, “used her mean voice” when she sent Jesse into the hallway, and pressured Jesse to pray.

Bright told Jesse that Jane Doe was a “bad person” for not believing in God, and eventually wore Jesse down to the point where Jesse joined in the classroom prayers.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/georgia-public-school-teachers-humiliate-kids-for-not-praying-to-god-our-father-lawsuit/

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[hatrack]

2. Those poor, poor oppressed Christians - won't someone think of the children?!!?!

[Hosnon]

3. Swainsboro is very rural.

The allegations may very well be true.

[Fred Sanders]

4. You forgot to mention this happened in Saudi Arabia? The lawsuit part would not happen, though. Just asking.

[dembotoz]

5. prefer not to hold saudi up the the example to whom we should be compared

[Fred Sanders]

6. Not "we", "them" in the OP in America.

[Major Nikon]

7. Sounds a lot like my childhood

I was raised in a small town. My father was a Unitarian pastor and once the PTA found out about it, they made sure the entire school knew about it so I could be "saved".

It was then that I realized much of the Christian establishment very much relies on the indoctrination of children to sustain their "faith". If faith really is such a strong and powerful force, why must it rely on brainwashing the most vulnerable among us?

[Rozlee]

16. When I was in Elementary School, we had a family of Jehovah's Witnesses move into town.

We were a very rural Texas town and the kids didn't want to stand for the Pledge. I'm not that big on their religion, but I have to admit that what those children were put through was genuine persecution. They were labeled communists and told they were going to hell for not believing that Jesus had been nailed to a cross. They were just little kids, for gawd's sake. I can't even count the number of times they were sent to the office for not saying the pledge. I don't know if their parents fought back or if the novelty wore off, but eventually, they were just told to leave the room during the Pledge and after a while, they were assimilated into the school population. But, their early introduction was horrendous.

[Major Nikon]

17. These are the types of things those who promote "Christian nation" bullshit will never acknowledge

What's most striking about these types of situations was the involvement of adults in this type of subterfuge. Parents encouraged their kids in this kind of behavior and to a large extent school faculty either did the same or at best were apathetic. It's as if these morons truly believed that regardless of how evil their behavior, everything was all OK because they were doing "god's work". People who make half-fast arguments about how compelling children to recite loyalty oaths with religious connotations probably have no experience with how such things are used as a tool to divide and indoctrinate the most vulnerable among us.

People certainly have the right to indoctrinate their children however they see fit, but others also have the right to refrain from doing so, and our government shouldn't be used as a tool to infringe on those rights.

[Adrahil]

8. My daughter has been called a "devil" by other kids...

... for refusing to say "under God" during the pledge. There was a short period where it got really bad with a kid calling her a "filthy atheist" but the school administration put an end to that. Mostly, she wears her "heathenism" as a badge of honor.

[2banon]

27. Is the "Pledge" STILL in effect? Not here In Oakland thankfully! My granddaughters do not have to be

subjected to fascists loyalty oaths nor prayers in school. I'm so glad they don't live in the South, where I was born and raised.

[Adrahil]

37. It is technically voluntary....

... but the peer pressure is fairly intense. I told she does not have to recite if she chooses not to. I don't have a problem with the pledge as a voluntary statement, but I absolutely DO object to "under God." I worked for the government for 20 years, and only had to take a loyalty oath once.

[CrispyQ]

9. FFRF is a great organization!

[Major Nikon]

10. There can never be freedom of religion unless there is freedom from religion

[Lucky Luciano]

11. Teacher needs to be fired and pension lost.

Lots of money for the child's family too.

Religion sucks.

[Arugula Latte]

12. Well, if that child hadn't been so MILITANT about her atheism, this wouldn't have happened!

I mean, people just aren't ready for this kind of in-your-face atheism!


In case I need this ...

[KG]

14. it was that dam 'holier-than-thou' brand of atheism.

[m-lekktor]

23. the child obviously wasn't one of the "good" atheists who stayed in the "closet". nt

[Arugula Latte]

31. Yes. The world just isn't ready to hear anything other than a professed belief

in magical supernatural beings who pull strings. No one should ever rock the boat, ever, by suggesting that there alternative ways to look at the universe.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Back in the late 60s when I attended two years of high school in Georgia

right after the pledge of allegiance, a member of the class would be called on to go to the front of the class to read a section of the bible. The home room teacher looked like he didn't really care and the requirement seemed to come from the principal's office and was done throughout the school.

[vankuria]

25. Being a Jewish girl

in the early 60's I was forced every morning to say a Christian prayer before class started. I was only 6 yrs. old so of course I didn't question anything but it was very confusing to me. And this was in New York State in a city school district, not some back woods town. I remember some 20 yrs. later telling my Dad about it and he was furious wanting to know why I didn't tell him, but I explained I was just a little girl and wouldn't dare question authority.

I thought we were well past that but apparently not.

[phylny]

32. Wow, that's amazing.

I grew up as a Catholic on Long Island in a community that was a mix of predominantly Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families. Not only did we never, ever pray in school, but we DID sing a variety of songs, including ones about Christmas and Hanukkah, during our winter concerts.

Classmates of mine that I stay still stay in touch with remember it the way I do - no one blinked an eye at what religion anyone was - and we all went to Confirmation and Bar/Bat Mitzvah parties happily.

[blackspade]

15. Dispicable

More Christian oppression.

[freshwest]

18. When school prayer was removed in my southern school many years ago, it was replaced without fanfare

with a 'moment of silence.' At that time the kids could pray or meditate ALL IN THEIR HEADS, with no talking allowed. I don't see why this is being done, when they can do it home or at church!

I attended a Baptist church and it was never a subject of discussion, nor were birth control, gays, abortion, or other people. When the Blue Laws were being voted upon, it was the only time they took a stand as the unions wanted people to get off work for one day a week and that was the excuse given. It wasn't like there was a monitor of who went to church on their Sundays off.

And when they were struck down, not one peep from the pulpit. Neither did they say a thing about prayer being taken out of school. The idea was that the state was the state and the church was the church and to stay out of each other's affairs. Let people think what they wanted.

Guessing that today the congregation would have been called a bunch of godless commies or something.
All this crap now is irrational behavior by busy bodies with too much time on their hands. They all want to look in other people's underwear or trying to read their minds as if it was any of their business.

It is none of their business!

What utter bullshit the kids have to put up with today. I really miss people minding their own business and going by 'live and let live.'

Too many people have fallen for this Reich Winger freak out. The government has been taken over by RWNJs. I don't want to live in some nasty, low down theocracy, but it's been coming since the seventies.

And it shouldn't be atheists having to bring this up in the first place. It used to be Christians who objected to this. All the way back to the first days of the USA.

[csziggy]

33. My experience in a central Florida town was different

When school prayer was eliminated by the Supreme Court at least one teacher in our school was adamant that it continue. She led a prayer at the beginning of each class period even though she had never done that before. Several of the students or their parents complained, especially after her prayer sessions got longer and longer, sometimes taking 15 minutes out of the 55 minute class period. I was really glad that she was not my teacher!

Finally the principle had to call her in and give her an ultimatum - the prayers had to stop or she would be fired. I got to hear all about it - her family lived down the street from us and I knew her daughter, though her daughter was not allowed to play with the rest of us. I guess we were "Christian" enough for her parents.

On the other hand, one of my classmates was a Jehovah's Witness. he would wait outside the class room until the Pledge was finished, then he would enter. Even though he was in Honors classes, he missed a lot since he was not allowed to participate in the classes about mythology, or some literature such as Shakespeare (god was mentioned), or exploration of culture in our Spanish class (celebrations of Christmas in various Spanish speaking countries, or other holidays based on any religious premise). It was really sad because he really wanted to learn about things other than the narrow spectrum his family and religion forced on him.

[freshwest]

34. Wow, she'd have never tried that at my school. We were also taught the theory of evolution in

our public elementary school. No one pitched a fit as it was accepted science in the fifties.

The church believed in the separation of church and state then. I miss that kind of sanity.

I worry what this will do to children, I can't see anything good from it.

Sigh...

[csziggy]

39. We had a strange group of teachers - the science teacher was great

I enjoyed her. The religious whack job was an English teacher and only taught basic English, not advanced. And then there was the cadre of teachers that had been around forever - some of them not only had taught my older sisters, they had taught my father 30 years before. There was the math teacher who didn't think girls should take advanced math and resented me since my oldest sister had taken every math award available while she was in his class.

Remember, prayer back then was prohibited by a Supreme Court decision:

1963 and after

In two landmark decisions, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the US Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state-sponsored prayer in schools. While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state-school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts’ decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other (state) school-sponsored religious activities were prohibited.[7] Following these two cases came the Court's decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), a ruling that established the Lemon test for religious activities within schools. The Lemon test states that in order to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment any practice sponsored within state run schools (or other public, state sponsored activities) must adhere to the following three criteria:[8]

Have a secular purpose;
Must neither advance nor inhibit religion; and
Must not result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prayer#1963_and_after

There really should be absolutely no prayer in school since those decisions have not been changed to my knowledge.

[Ramses]

19. Reading this you would think back to mideval times

Lots of brainwashed people still live among us, and they are trying to destroy children with fairy tale propaganda. This does happen with much frequency in rural areas of the country to this day.

I have less hope daily because of stories such as this

[Ilsa]

20. It's a waste of time during the school day.

Kids who aren't indoctrinated at home aren't going to buy it at school.

This time could be used for something else, like reading or teaching.

[rgbecker]

21. Ever read about Germany in the 30's?

The pressure to raise the arm in salute was just the start....took only about 8 years before they were loading people into trains headed for the gas chambers. Sending people out of the room is just the start down the road to hell.

http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Beasts-Terror-American-Hitlers/dp/030740885X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423831569&sr=8-1&keywords=in+the+garden+of+the+beast

[Stellar]

22. What the heck is wrong with people.

When they just can't let people live their own life. Especially if they're not hurting anyone else. Where is the crime?

[guillaumeb]

26. difference makes these people uncomfortable.

Because they believe something everyone must believe the same thing. Anyone who does not believe as they do is not just incorrect, they are bad and must be forced to believe.

Any different from the early English settlers who came to America to set up their own theocracy because they did not like the English theocracy?

[LWolf]

24. It sounds like that's a lawsuit

that should have happened a long time ago.

[Orsino]

28. If only the school exerted this sort of effort to teach more than myths and bullying. n/t

[CK_John]

29. Every tribe has its rituals and if they could get away it, dissenters would be disappeared.

[el_bryanto]

30. That's pretty terrible and should be shut down. nt

[bhikkhu]

35. Oddly enough, I went to catholic school until 8th grade

...and I didn't pray, was openly skeptical in religion class, and refused confirmation (alone in my class). Yet I wasn't treated badly at all by anyone. My 8th grade teacher and I sat down and had a good talk a couple of years ago - she in her late 80's now - more or less about faith on her side, and me about science on mine. She was still very interested and fond of me, and I always admired her for how she demonstrated compassion, in the classroom and in how she lived.

Religion doesn't have to make you small and spiteful, any more than the lack of it...I feel sorry for the kids, and sorry for the pettiness of the human world, all too often.

[bobGandolf]

36. This crap needs to be squashed! n/t

[hifiguy]

38. Sue their asses off!

This is ridiculous and outrageous.