While Scott and I seem to be on different planets regarding Iraq, we can both heartily agree that this story is disturbing
India, her older siblings, Tyla and Garrett, and their mother, Sarajane, described how years of alleged verbal taunts, veiled threats and then finally physical abuse over their religious differences with other Union County residents prompted them to pull India from Horace Maynard Middle School in 2002.
“The last straw was when India was chased down the hallway by three boys who grabbed her by the back of the neck and told her she should change her religion or they’d change it for her,” said Sarajane Tracy.
But it’s not just a matter of intolerant students being given free rein by the school district to terrorize a pagan girl. While I think the scrubbing of cultural religious symbols from public fora has gone more than a bit overboard, these passages demonstrate just why that’s happened.
India’s older sister, Tyla, a student at Union County High School, said she was once punished for not attending a tent revival held during school hours by being forced to do extra classwork. “(My teacher) told me it would remind me to bring my permission slip,” Tyla said.
The tent revival, called the Area Wide Crusade, was started in 1998 by a Union County Baptist pastor and is slated to be held again later this month.
According to the Tracys, India was sent to the principal’s office twice because of her religion. The first time was triggered by her mother’s refusal of permission for her to attend the revival. The second visit took place when she declined to play Mary in a Christmas play.
Tent revivals as school events (requiring a permission slip and hanging out in the principal’s office)? And, for that matter, a Christmas Pageant complete with the Virgin Mary, also a school function?
Of course, we don’t know the whole story, since the district isn’t talking (they never do, do they).
But, to put it bluntly, school is not church. I don’t care if 99.9% of the local population is as Christian as Billy Graham — heck, I don’t care if they’re 100% churchgoers, you are asking for trouble, intolerance, and an inevitable clash if you incorporate denominational activities into your school curriculum.
Unfortunately, it usually takes a case like this — ostracism, threats, a law suit, and, inevitably, a big cash pay-out — to start to get districts like this in line. And, even then, it’s problematic.
Perhaps someone ought to teach a civics lesson there on the subject. They can start with the Tennessee state constitution, Article I, Section 3:
Section 3. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent; that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.
Pretty to think so.
Oooh, good idea, looking up the state constitution. That only reinforces the family.
Thanks. And yeah, we may be oil and water on some things, but we do agree on a lot more than we disagree on. Honest. 🙂
That’s why you’re still on the blogroll. 🙂
Dave
I thought you had some stuff on this within the past few months. I will have to wait with worm on tongue for the outcome.
It ought to be interesting…I wonder how long before it reaches the SCoUSA
Don’t think I’ve had this particular story up before, though plenty like it.
Hope Union County loses BIG.
“India is currently being home-schooled [for a year], but her parents indicated they would like to place her in a private Knox County school next year. Held said the family initially only wanted to collect attorneys’ fees and make the school system correct the problems. But now they say the stakes have been raised by the filing of the lawsuit.
“We’re going to send her to the absolute finest school that money can buy,” Held said. “
WVLT said, “India has been home schooled since leaving the Union County School system a year ago.”
In the three stories I can find I only find allegations made by the family. No one was quoted from the other side. They were home-schooling her for a year and now they want to go to a private school. It may be as stated, but something smells fishy.
The article mentions the school sending the kids to the tent revival on school time. Lawsuit or no, I think they would respond to that if it wasn’t true, with, “That’s ridiculous!” My bet is that their lawyers still haven’t got through to them that it was illegal or that “separation of church and state” doesn’t just mean that the church is over here and the county court house is over there.
The article notes, “School officials have declined to talk about the lawsuit,” which is why the story is (as I noted) possibly one-sided.
Frankly, I have no problem, if a person is driven out of public school for stuff like this, asking for compensation to attend a good private school. Home schooling may well have been the best (or only) short-term alternative.
I did some research. The Tennessee ACLU has been trolling for plaintiffs since 2000. The situation is known as released time. There needs to be a permission slip to be able to attend. The slips are passed out without comment and were returned to the mailbox of the teacher.
I remember released time as a kid. I thought that the religious education at the time was bunch of crap and I attended the study hall instead. The constitutionality of released time as long as the religious education was not on school grounds was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson decision.
Interesting. I have to wonder how it fare if it came back up to the Court today. I suspect that school-organized “release time” to a revival tent or other religious education would probably be thought of a bit different a half-century later.
Here’s a comment a teacher had concerning this:
Date Posted: 07:04:28 02/17/03 Mon
Author: teacher
Subject: Re: Religious Lawsuit Against Union County Schools
In reply to: anoki ‘s message, “Religious Lawsuit Against Union County Schools” on 07:04:28 02/17/03 Mon
The more I read your comments the madder I get. I teach in this county and the way you use the word “force” just gets to me. We are in the business of teaching. Yes, we have the crusades. Of course the school system doesn’t sponsor them, but we do allow our students to attended ( with a signed permssion slip from PARENTS)(No one is “forced” to go). Yes, we have Christmas programs. (No student is “forced” to attend. Of course the media would not want to get the opinions and facts from the school systems before sending this to the paper and on the air. You know, any lawyer wanting money would take on a case like this. I just believe this is silly. If I don’t want my child to participate in these functions then I won’t sent him/her. I certainly wouldn’t want to make a scene for those who do like to attend. I can assure you as well that the child was not left in the classroom alone. I have taught for several years and I have never had all of my students attend the Crusade. I just think that before you blast the school system and the individuals at a school that you need alot more information that what one side has to say.
I have no problem with kids — even most of the kids (95%?) — going to a tent revival. That’s between them, their parents, and (hypothetically) God.
I can even see that if a large number of students were going to be gone for something like this, the school might choose to accomodate it to the extent of arranging its schedule (similar to what happens around Christmas). I would expect that everyone would be so accomodated (if all the Christian kids get to bail on school, everyone should).
I would not expect the school district to provide busses to the event. It’s unclear from the discussion board whether that’s the case or not (the story is presented both ways).
And I’ll confess that I’m a bit uncomfortable with the Christmas Pageant — “voluntary,” yes, but still a formal school function, advertised as such (“support our students!”), etc.
The initial news story for this is reprinted here (the original seems to be offline now). It goes into a lot more particulars.
The busses were provided by independent contractors and paid for by the crusade according to this.
I agree about the Chistmas pageant. The way it was done at my daughter’s elementary school seemed a good compromise. That is, a presentation of a number of different end-of-year religious festivals.
And that would work for me, too. There are practical considerations, in terms of how long the presentation could be. In some ways, it’s easier to be completely generic and non-sectarian — but also less interesting.
I’d seen that note, but also seen allegations that the busses were paid for by the school district. One of the things that remains to be seen, though it should be pretty easy to prove one way or another.
I thought it was interesting and was a way for the kids to get a grasp on other beliefs. It was pretty basic, but we are talking about elementary school.