Gainesville, Florida, school sends home student with anti-Islam shirt.

[madfloridian]

Sounds like Gainesville is having their hands full with the group called Dove World Outreach Center.

There was a video of their leader preaching that Islam is of the devil.

To their credit the neighborhood fought back about signs put up by the group.

Residents carried their own signs Wednesday evening calling for "peace not hate" in response to a northwest Gainesville church that recently posted a sign with an anti-Islamic message.

At least 80 people gathered on both sides of Northwest 37th Street in front of the Dove World Outreach Center for a prayer vigil organized after the church recently erected a sign proclaiming "Islam is of the devil."

Participants held up their signs and listened to words from Eve MacMaster, pastor of the Emmanuel Mennonite Church, and Saeed R. Kahn, president of the Muslim Association of North Central Florida. The group maintained its vigil for at least an hour as members at the church gathered for a 7 p.m. service.

...""We're here to stand in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors," MacMaster said. The purpose of the vigil, she said, was express the goodwill of most citizens and religious people toward Muslims and to "pray for the cleansing of the community."

Here is the shirt that caused the girl to be sent home. Good for the school.


Tricia Coyne | The Gainesville Sun
Wayne Sapp, left, answers questions during a video interview. His daughter, Emily, a 10th grader at Gainesville High School, shows the T-shirt that caused her removal from school.

Here is the article:

Anti-Islamic Shirts Get Students Sent Home

GAINESVILLE | More children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived Tuesday at area public schools with shirts bearing the message "Islam is of the Devil" and were sent home for violation of the Alachua County School District's dress code when they declined to change clothes or to cover the anti-Muslim statement on their clothing.

School District staff attorney Tom Wittmer said the shirts violated a district ban on clothing that may "disrupt the learning process" or cause other students to be "offended or distracted."

"Students have a right of free speech, and we have allowed students to come to school wearing clothes with messages," Wittmer said. "But this message is a divisive message that is likely to offend students. Principals, I feel reasonably, have deemed that a violation of the dress code."

Wittmer said the School District allows students to express their religious beliefs but also must protect other students, such as members of the Muslim faith, from discrimination based on their religious beliefs.

Here is a an opinion from a legal scholar:

Catherine Cameron, a faculty member at the Stetson College of Law, said the School District "likely has a good leg to stand on from a First Amendment standpoint" because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in several cases that public schools may quash speech deemed disruptive "even if it steps on the other child's free speech rights."

[Ken Burch]

1. I support the neighbors who stood against hate

As to this "outreach center", well, as the Gospels put it:

"Jesus Wept".

[rocktivity]

2. Whereas a T-shiri reading "Christianity is of idiots" would have gotten her arrested.

Wear it own your own time, not in school.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[provis99]

3. don't see whats wrong with the shirt.

and on the front I'd write "...and Christianity is the most murderous religion". (how about this one: all religions are equally rotten)