FL public school principal faces 6 month in jail

[varun]

I hope he gets jailtime.

Tired of these Christofascists.


http://www.examiner.com/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Florida-administrators-stand-trial-for-prayer-in-school

Frank Lay, Pace High School principal, and Robert Freeman, the school's athletic director, will appear on criminal contempt charges for offering public prayer in a public school. The administrators face up to 6 months in jail and a $5,000 fine for offering a mealtime prayer. Lay and Freeman go on trial today at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). By violating the court order, the two are in danger of being found in contempt of court.

Pace High School, located in Florida's Santa Rosa County School District, is a school of more than 1,800 students. Pace is known by many as "the Baptist Academy." For years, teachers and staff delivered prayers, mandated students complete religious-oriented assignments and encouraged involvement in religious clubs. Teachers offered Bible readings or biblical interpretations and talked about the churches they attended. Christian prayers during sporting events and other activities were common. All this was encouraged and endorsed by Principal Frank Lay.

The school district has allowed flagrant violations of the First Amendment for years. The Pace High School teachers handbook asks teachers to "embrace every opportunity to inculcate, by precept and example, the practice of every Christian virtue."

After years of warnings and abuse, last year the ACLU finally filed a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County School District, claiming that teachers and administration "endorsed" religion. Rather than fight, the School District consented to the entry of an order that prohibited, among other things, all prayer at school-sponsored events. Nine days after Lay signed the temporary injunction, he was accused of violating the order...

[rurallib]

1. Hope they send a signal. State sponsored prayer in public schools is not acceptable.

[tsuki]

7. This is not state sponsored prayer. The principal has a specific

denomination that he pushes for "the next generation."

[billyoc]

2. He'll be aquitted by a jury of his Christian Falangist peers.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Do they actually try criminal contempt?

If its a jury trial, count on it being a least a mistrial

[billyoc]

5. Oh, I don't know that.

[TheCoxwain]

3. Hope this Piece of SHIT is nailed to the Cross..

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. There is an exception for voluntary student prayer in schools etc

but what level of involvement by the staff is something I do not know the details of. A Bible Club would require a staff sponsor. If your coach is sponsoring the prayer just how voluntary is it?

Lots of details missing here.

[piratefish08]

8. "Pace is known by many as "the Baptist Academy."

it's also known as "a public school".

they encouraged this shit in the teacher's handbook - SHUT THE SCHOOL DOWN and replace the administration.

get jeebus out of school. he's been there for 2000 years. he's tired and wants to graduate.

[liberalhistorian]

9. You know, I'm a Christian, and a fairly devout one at that,

but this kind of stuff just pisses me off. You absolutely cannot force your beliefs on anyone. You have no right to do so. You can share your faith and demonstrate it by acts, and you certainly shouldn't have to hide it under a bush. But you have no right or cause to force others to do the same, to shove your beliefs down their throats, to denigrate their religion if different from yours, or lack of religion if they're agnostic or atheist, etc., etc. That is actually against Christian doctrine, which promotes sharing of your faith BUT also has free will as a cornerstone of its basic belief. Forced belief is no belief at all. Unfortunately, too many Christians throughout history have never learned that lesson and countless numbers have suffered because of it.

Please don't equate EVERY Christian with those who are like this. We are not all like these people, nor do we want to be. Although I think that six months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines is a bit much. And it will only give ammunition to the theocrats and Christofascists.

[imdjh]

10. I hate that they are going to force us to purge the culture at some point.

Religion was a part of my childhood. Not this kind of Fire and Brimstone religion, comfort religion. My mom still goes to church, and I try to hold my tongue about religion in public life when I am around her, because she's old and she finds comfort in it.

But historically, the old religion doesn't go by the wayside quietly. It has to be forcibly purged from the society. It has to be mocked and punished. Which would be unnecessary if these people weren't so incredibly obnoxious, but they are.

You couldn't have found a hundred students, much less a thousand at my high school who would have stood in a circle for the Lord's Prayer. That's because it was in an urban area of educated people. I don't like hurting the feelings of others, but as education goes up fundamentalism tends to go down. As economic prosperity rises, religiousness tends to decline. There are exceptions, as always.

These people aren't simply holding beliefs, they are passing this plague on to another generation. I'm sorry we don't have anything quite as comforting to replace it with. Most people don't get Buddhism or Zen in the same comforting way that spiritual reincarnation in the earthly personality in some blissful cloud top existence does. But if all they did was believe in heaven, then there really wouldn't be a problem. It's the stupid that goes with it that makes the whole thing have to go.