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Post by cestlefun17 on Oct 3, 2011 8:54:28 GMT -5
A banner painted on the wall of the Cranston High School West auditorium, a public high school in Cranston, RI (and my alma mater) will be challenged in federal district court on October 13. The banner is entitled "School Prayer" and begins "Our Heavenly Father," calls on students to honor their school, and ends with "Amen." After receiving a formal complaint by a junior student, the school committee voted last spring to maintain the banner regardless of the constitutional issues it presented. They are now being sued in the federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Public schools are constitutionally required to "maintain a strict and lofty neutrality as to religion" ( School District of Abington v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203) and are forbidden from creating, endorsing, or reciting any prayer ( Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421). www.riaclu.org/20110912.htm |
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Post by Smurfette Principle on Oct 3, 2011 9:26:40 GMT -5
I feel so weird reading this, since Cranston West is one of our scholastic rivals.
But yeah, this is so blatantly unconstitutional I don't even know where to begin.
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Post by scienceisgreen on Oct 3, 2011 9:34:31 GMT -5
Wow, exactly how long have they had that and NO ONE has noticed it? Or thought to bring up the obvious violation?
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Post by cestlefun17 on Oct 3, 2011 10:09:56 GMT -5
More than 50 years  . I definitely noticed it when I was a student and wrote and e-mail to the ACLU myself. But I was never 18 years old during high school and my parents would not have appreciated the extra-special attention this family has been receiving. There was also a prayer banner in Hugh B. Bain middle school (also in Cranston) up for 70 years that was recently taken down voluntarily by the school's administrators. |
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Post by N. De Plume on Oct 3, 2011 10:32:35 GMT -5
After receiving a formal complaint by a junior student, the school committee voted last spring to maintain the banner regardless of the constitutional issues it presented.  And what, exactly, did they expect to happen after reaching this decision? |
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Post by cestlefun17 on Oct 3, 2011 10:53:01 GMT -5
They hope to be victorious in federal court, and that the Supreme Court will erase decades of precedent to rule in their favor of pressuring schoolchildren to follow certain religious beliefs.
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Post by Thejebusfire on Oct 3, 2011 11:07:22 GMT -5
Why do fundies feel the need to post their religion fucking everywhere?
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Post by brendanrizzo on Oct 3, 2011 11:26:30 GMT -5
Why do fundies feel the need to post their religion fucking everywhere? Because they're insecure. |
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Post by N. De Plume on Oct 3, 2011 11:32:35 GMT -5
They hope to be victorious in federal court, and that the Supreme Court will erase decades of precedent to rule in their favor of pressuring schoolchildren to follow certain religious beliefs. And here I was thinking Rhode Island was far enough north that their school boards were living in Reality.  |
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Post by erictheblue on Oct 3, 2011 13:16:06 GMT -5
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Post by tgrwulf on Oct 4, 2011 1:01:26 GMT -5
I'm actually amazed it took this long for a lawsuit to happen in a country as lawsuit happy as the US. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely for them having to take it down. Just shocked it didn't happen sooner so far up north.
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Post by Mlle Antéchrist on Oct 4, 2011 1:04:02 GMT -5
They hope to be victorious in federal court, and that the Supreme Court will erase decades of precedent to rule in their favor of pressuring schoolchildren to follow certain religious beliefs. This, pretty much. I'm almost certain that someone, somewhere is hearing about this case, and screaming, "Freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion!" |
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Post by N. De Plume on Oct 4, 2011 9:27:16 GMT -5
I'm actually amazed it took this long for a lawsuit to happen in a country as lawsuit happy as the US. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely for them having to take it down. Just shocked it didn't happen sooner so far up north. Even up north, bringing suit against religious items is unfashionable. I'm almost certain that someone, somewhere is hearing about this case, and screaming, "Freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion!" Hey, I think I can hear one now.  |
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Post by cestlefun17 on Oct 13, 2011 4:02:06 GMT -5
This case will be heard today at 3:00PM in Providence, Rhode Island. The matter is Ahlquist v. City of Cranston.
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Post by erictheblue on Oct 13, 2011 6:04:16 GMT -5
This case will be heard today at 3:00PM in Providence, Rhode Island. The matter is Ahlquist v. City of Cranston. Hmm... I'll be at my internship in a prosecuting attorney's office. No one will think twice if I am on a legal site "doing research." |
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. I definitely noticed it when I was a student and wrote and e-mail to the ACLU myself. But I was never 18 years old during high school and my parents would not have appreciated the extra-special attention this family has been receiving.
And what, exactly, did they expect to happen after reaching this decision?
