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| Judge Elizabeth Foote |
The parents of a Buddhist student in Louisiana ridiculed by a creationist teacher won their lawsuit against the school district, the American Civil Liberties Union revealed Friday.
The student, known as C.C., was asked by sixth-grade teacher Rita Roark to answer the following question on a test: “ISN’T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
When C.C. failed to respond “Lord,” Roark responded “you’re stupid if you don’t believe in God.” She also frequently denigrated his Buddhist faith, as well as the Hindu faith, referring to both as “stupid.” When his parents complained to Sabine Parish Superintendent Sara Ebarb, they were told that “this is the Bible belt,” so they should expect to find the Christian God in the classroom. Ebarb advised them that if they wanted an ungodly classroom, they should transfer C.C. to a school where “there are more Asians.”
Judge Elizabeth Foote of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana sided with C.C. and his parents, citing that Roark’s behavior — and the school’s decision to defend it — clearly violated “the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”
With regard to the specific behavior of Roark, Judge Foot wrote that “[t]he District and School Board are permanently enjoined from permitting School Officials at any school within the School District to promote their personal religious beliefs to students in class or during or in conjunction with a School Event.” Furthermore, “School Officials shall not denigrate any particular faith, or lack thereof, or single out any student for disfavor or criticism because of his or her particular faith or religious belief, or lack thereof.”
The judge also ordered all the members of the school board to undergo training to make them more sensitive to their responsibilities with respect to the First Amendment.
And remember THIS happened in Louisiana, home of Bobby Jindal who has been pushing Creationism into the public school system for some time now.
This is a huge reality check for them, and hopefully for others in the religious right that they can no longer force their belief system onto others with impunity.
As was mentioned in the other thread that touched on this, the person doing the training of the school board and all new faculty must be an attorney approved by, wait for it, the ACLU! That's gotta hurt. ROFL
ReplyDeleteHmmm, wonder if they'll chance an appeal. This humiliation is pretty all-encompassing.
If that's a photo of Rita, I'll bet her toothy smile has morphed into more of a clenched teeth grinding grimace.
ReplyDeleteNope! That's Judge Foote!!!!!!!!!!
DeleteOops!
DeleteThis is good news. No one gets to bully little kids about religion in a public school.
ReplyDeleteYES!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure they'll appeal. Just get Fox to hype it up, and a benefactor to finance their lawyers then start a smear and spin campaign, and claim how Christians are persecuted in USA.
ReplyDeleteThis is good news but I think we have much work to do before celebrating. I think something like 30 of 50 of state legislatures are controlled by these bible banging, right wing nuts, many of our governors belong to the rank, and the US House of Reps has a large number of them.
ReplyDeleteThe mid-term elections are critical. Job 1 for us should be to get out the vote. Imagine our future if the nutcases win the Senate. I will NEVER forget the low voter turn-out and the infamous Joe Miller winning the Republican primary here in Alaska.
These rabid nutcases vote, we need to make sure we are too...and doing everything we can to get others to the polls.
At the risk of sounding a bit a hypocrite, I say:
DeleteAMEN!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn't it interesting that these so called Christians think it is fine to "teach" religion in public schools, however when it comes to sex education they get all bend out of shape because they want it taught at home. Bunch of hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteThey're fine with teaching religion in the schools as long as it is their own. Try teaching an understanding of any other faith and watch the fur fly.
DeleteHypocritians
I'll repeat, prayer and the teaching of one religion in schools is exactly why the Right want to abolish the Department of Education just so there is no Federal Government involvement in these kinds of incidents.
ReplyDeleteThis is how the law is supposed to work! (I'm not a lawyer nor have I played one on tv, it's just my opinion).
ReplyDeletethink our fuk_tard homegrown domestic taliban ought'a take up residence with their brethren taliban in afghanistan, should be enough caves to go around, if not they can shoot it out
ReplyDeleteGod's a fucking prick.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I'm still alive!!!!
I am a born again Christian. I love the Lord. I even love all of you intolerant people who post here.
ReplyDeleteThe decision by this Judge is absolutely 100% correct. No teacher should treat children that way. No student should be presumed to know the tenets of another person's faith.
The first amendment wins. Racism and intolerance in the name of JESUS struck down.
Lastly this teacher is such an idiot. She probably turned this kid, his family,and others in the community AGAINST Christ with her hate and racism.
@3:26.
Delete"I even love all of you intolerant people who post here."
I remember once seeing an ad on TV and the gist of the ad was that even considering a person as "Jewish" or "Christian" or whatever when describing them is basically bigotry. After years of thinking about that, I am firmly convinced that is true.
The extension of that logic tells me that since you label us as 'you intolerant people', you, too, are a bigot.
In my years of experiencing contact with the so-called born again christian, I can easily say I have yet to meet one who didn't raise the hackles on the back of my neck and make me reach for my wallet if he/she told me they were a born again christian. EVERY single time I have become involved with one who brags about it, they tried to screw me somehow.
So please try to understand that your first paragraph means absolutely nothing to me and carries NO weight whatsoever.
The second paragraph holds nothing with which I can disagree since it is basically the rule of law winning out.
The third paragraph? I am ambivalent about this one. On the one hand I can agree that the teacher was an idiot. And probably still is, but I have no proof of that.
The last line? Since I am a practicing non-believer, I find this to be a good thing. I would love to live long enough to see organized RELIGION banned. I won't, but the idea makes me smile.
What an intolerant thing to say. How Christian of you.
DeleteWhat a lovely smackdown.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when fundamentalists get elected to school boards. They usually hide their agenda until after the election. We had one get recalled immediately out in a neighboring county once his true colors appeared.