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September 22, 2011

Ruling forbidding classroom banners mentioning God to be appealed

Tony Perry:

A Michigan-based legal group said Monday that it would petition the full U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a three-judge panel's ruling that a San Diego-area teacher does not have the right to display banners that mention God in his classroom.

A three-judge panel of the court ruled last week that Bradley Johnson's right to free speech was not violated when the school district told him to remove the banners from his classroom.

Johnson, a high school mathematics teacher in the Poway Unified School District, had hung banners in his classroom for more than two decades with phrases such as "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," and "God Bless America."

But in 2007 the principal of Westview High School in Rancho Penasquitos said the banners' size made them into a "promotion of a particular viewpoint." Johnson took down the banners and filed a federal lawsuit.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 22, 2011 2:02 AM
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Comments

Of course, this is the only correct result. Public school teachers are government employees. When acting in that capacity, their religious positions puts a government imprimatur on this religious position. Clearly is and should be a violation of separation of church and state.

When I was in 4th grade, my teacher was the wife of the local preacher -- I think Methodist. Every Monday, she asked each child if they went to church the previous Sunday, and would chide those who didn't. If you did go to church, then she gave you a gold star, which was displayed prominently.

I didn't, of course. For some reason, I knew that the teacher had a particular role, and she was acting outside that role -- it wasn't any of her business. In any case, I wore my lack of church gold stars as a badge of honor. The result, of course, was many bullying sessions with classmates who enjoyed calling me a "jew boy", and "Jesus killer". Fights sometimes occurred when I got tired of the harassment, and punched the kid who'd pissed me off.

It's too bad that people have to get lawyers and courts involved with this stuff, when punching out the offender was both more effective, and more efficient.

Posted by: Larry Winkler at September 22, 2011 11:24 PM

".....when punching out the offender was both more effective, and more efficient." Amen!

Posted by: Reed Schneider at September 23, 2011 7:10 AM
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