Articles labeled: separation of church and state

Yesterday we had a teacher failing a kid for using religious imagery in his artwork, and now we have a teacher making openly “anti-Christian” remarks in the middle of a European history class. These people just don’t get it, do they? Maybe Mr. Corbett needs to brush up on his American history as well, and figure out the real purpose of the Establishment Clause.

Chad Farnan, a 16-year-old sophomore, says the teacher, James Corbett, told his students that “Jesus glasses” obscure the truth and suggested that Christians are more likely than other people to commit rape and murder.

Farnan recorded his teacher telling students in class: “What country has the highest murder rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rate of church attendance? The South!” Farnan said he took the tape recorder to class to supplement his class notes.

“It was very hard for me because it’s like basically telling me all this stuff that I’ve believed my whole entire life — it’s just basically trying to throw it out the window,” Farnan told FOX News.

Farnan’s family has filed a federal lawsuit against the Capistrano Unified School District, claiming Corbett’s remarks violated the First Amendment, which prohibits laws “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They are demanding that Corbett be fired.

We’re staunch supporters of separation of church and state, and will go to the mat if we thought our rights were being infringed upon. So when boneheaded teachers and school administrators at a high school in Madison, Wisconsin enacted policies that clearly demonstrate they have no idea what the Establishment Clause really means, they don’t do anyone any favors and just provide more fodder for the other side. See, geniuses, it refers to the government endorsing a particular religion, it doesn’t mean that religious beliefs of the students need to be suppressed or banned. Sheesh, we thought that should be pretty obvious to people with college educations.

According to the lawsuit [filed by the student’s parents], the student’s art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a [Tomah High School] senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words “John 3:16 A sign of love” in his drawing.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.

Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.

The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students’ rights.

Some parents at the Irasburg Village School in Irasburg, Vermont, are a bit irate at language arts teacher Wally Rogers for crossing the “separation of church and state” line. Rogers has the Ten Commandments hanging on his classroom wall, as well as religious texts lining his bookshelves. The final straw was when he gave the kids a handout titled, “Why Jesus is Better than Santa Claus”. Huh, we didn’t know people actually printed and kept all that kind of crap we get in our email inbox. And besides, I thought the debate of Jesus vs. Santa was already decided.

Downs said he doesn’t want other people teaching his kids religious beliefs contrary to his own.

The school’s principal, Paul Simmons, said the Ten Commandments poster and questionable books were removed from the classroom. He also said he’s observed Roger’s class several times and never heard him speak about religious material.

The school board is currently investigating religious links on Roger’s Web page on the school Web site. They also issued a reminder to all teachers that religious beliefs should not be shared in the classroom.