Secular News Daily - February 23, 2011
Freedom From Religion Foundation honors Virginia woman for contesting school religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s "first commandment" is honor the constitutionally mandated separation of state and church. To accomplish that, FFRF needs cooperation from citizens like Sarah McNair, who is the latest recipient of its Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award, a $1,000 scholarship. The award honors students and youth who show special courage or dedication in speaking out to defend secularism or promote freethought.
McNair, now a married 23-year-old student who lives in northern Virginia, began speaking out officially in 2004. She wrote letters of complaint to state officials about the Ten Commandments placed on the walls at Giles County High School in Pearisburg, Va. She received responses dismissing her concerns that students’ rights were being violated. She kept copies of the correspondence, which you can read here.
McNair, who was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and moved to Giles County as a 10th grader, remembers her shock at hearing the morning announcement, "Have a nice day and God bless," she told the Roanoke Times in January. "At the time. I didn’t want to be blessed by God. "Why do they say that to everyone? What about the people who don’t want to start out their day with religion?
"I really strongly wanted to make the school religiously neutral, so the school would speak out for all its students, not just religious students," she said. After she objected to the principal, it stopped but only temporarily.
"The state didn’t do their homework, and they passed it back to the school board," First Amendment scholar Charles Haynes told the paper about McNair’s complaints. "What they should have done is looked more closely at it and had a discussion with the school board to look more closely at it."
Enter FFRF in December 2010, when it sent a letter of objection on behalf of local complainants about Ten Commandments hanging in a Giles County middle school hallway. McNair contacted FFRF after the letter to express her support.
District Superintendent Terry Arbogast ordered the Commandments to be removed from all county schools and from the technology center in the wake of the Foundation’s letter. But on Jan. 20, the Board of Education voted 5-0 to put them back up after being overwhelmed by negative comments.
FFRF responded that unless the district removed the clearly unconstitutional displays, it would file a lawsuit along with county residents. Arbogast estimated fighting a suit could cost $300,000.
The Giles County School Board held a special meeting Feb. 22 and voted to remove the Commandments in all buildings. The same day, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to hear a case challenging a previous ruling that struck down the display of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses. The court had ruled in 2005 that the displays in McCreary and Pulaski counties represented an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity.
"The board has not formally contacted FFRF or the ACLU of Virginia to report whether the removal is temporary or permanent," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We are still planning a joint challenge to the violation in federal court. If the decalogue posters return to public schools, we will file the lawsuit with the all-important help of local parents with students in the Giles County Public Schools."
Gaylor added, "It’s a pity that Giles County Schools and state education officials didn’t listen to Sarah when she complained many years ago. It really takes guts and savvy for a young student to lodge a complaint about an Establishment Clause violation at her school.
"Sarah put her letter of protest into writing, did not back down when the school district didn’t listen, and attempted to remedy the violation by alerting state officials. We are really impressed with her activism."
Gaylor also praised McNair’s willingness to speak publicly against the Commandments displays to local and national media.
Foundation Co-President Dan Barker acknowledged the West Coast couple who annually endow FFRF’s youth activist award.
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UK theology think tank says it is wrong to exclude God from classroom, superstition and reason should be equal partners
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McNair, who was raised as a Unitarian Universalist and moved to Giles County as a 10th grader, remembers her shock at hearing the morning announcement, "Have a nice day and God bless," she told the Roanoke Times in January. "At the time. I didn’t want to be blessed by God. "Why do they say that to everyone? What about the people who don’t want to start out their day with religion?
"I really strongly wanted to make the school religiously neutral, so the school would speak out for all its students, not just religious students," she said. After she objected to the principal, it stopped but only temporarily.
"The state didn’t do their homework, and they passed it back to the school board," First Amendment scholar Charles Haynes told the paper about McNair’s complaints. "What they should have done is looked more closely at it and had a discussion with the school board to look more closely at it."
Enter FFRF in December 2010, when it sent a letter of objection on behalf of local complainants about Ten Commandments hanging in a Giles County middle school hallway. McNair contacted FFRF after the letter to express her support.
District Superintendent Terry Arbogast ordered the Commandments to be removed from all county schools and from the technology center in the wake of the Foundation’s letter. But on Jan. 20, the Board of Education voted 5-0 to put them back up after being overwhelmed by negative comments.
FFRF responded that unless the district removed the clearly unconstitutional displays, it would file a lawsuit along with county residents. Arbogast estimated fighting a suit could cost $300,000.
The Giles County School Board held a special meeting Feb. 22 and voted to remove the Commandments in all buildings. The same day, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to hear a case challenging a previous ruling that struck down the display of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses. The court had ruled in 2005 that the displays in McCreary and Pulaski counties represented an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity.
"The board has not formally contacted FFRF or the ACLU of Virginia to report whether the removal is temporary or permanent," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "We are still planning a joint challenge to the violation in federal court. If the decalogue posters return to public schools, we will file the lawsuit with the all-important help of local parents with students in the Giles County Public Schools."
Gaylor added, "It’s a pity that Giles County Schools and state education officials didn’t listen to Sarah when she complained many years ago. It really takes guts and savvy for a young student to lodge a complaint about an Establishment Clause violation at her school.
"Sarah put her letter of protest into writing, did not back down when the school district didn’t listen, and attempted to remedy the violation by alerting state officials. We are really impressed with her activism."
Gaylor also praised McNair’s willingness to speak publicly against the Commandments displays to local and national media.
Foundation Co-President Dan Barker acknowledged the West Coast couple who annually endow FFRF’s youth activist award.
Related articles on Secular News Daily:
Virginia school board votes to put Ten Commandments back in county schools
Constitutional Commandment: Virginia School Board Obeys First Amendment – At Least For Now
Commandments Clash: Va. County Has One Last Chance To Avoid A Lawsuit – And Should Take It
FFRF challenges religious Tennessee courthouse display
FFRF to Tennessee: Keep prayer out of school events
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RELATED ARTICLES:
Virginia school board vows to spend public money fighting costly law suit over Ten Commandments in schools
Virginia school board votes to return Ten Commandments to classrooms despite Supreme Court ruling it is unconstitutional
European Court of Human Rights rules crucifixes in Italian schools violates children's religious freedom to believe or not
Texas school board members injected their personal religious beliefs into social studies curriculum
Reactionary Christian fundamentalists take over Texas school board, rewrite history books to indoctrinate America's children
Teen tells hearing Louisiana Science Education Act is embarrassing, students deserve to be taught proper science
Louisiana school board wants believers to teach creationism in science classes, thinks it will solve discipline problem
Teaching evolution in science classrooms under attack in the US and UK by anti-science creationists
Creationists weaken U.S. education system, only a quarter of high school students adequately taught evolutionary biology
Ohio school district payed nearly a million dollars to fire science teacher who taught creationism
Nebraska education administrators get mixed messages from lawyers on legality of promoting religion in schools
Federal Court of Appeal asked to stop California college proselytizing and imposing religion on students
Advocacy group battles illegal Christian fundamentalist proselytizing in U.S. public schools
Fundamentalist Christian 'punk' band uses deception to evangelize and indoctrinate in U.S. schools
Radical Christian extremists aim to undermine public education by targeting high school kids for indoctrination into fundamentalist worldview
Canadian fundamentalist Christian universities promote religious extremism over knowledge
UK theology think tank says it is wrong to exclude God from classroom, superstition and reason should be equal partners
Does religion have any proper role in education?
Strong Secularism: "Religious education can be a form of mental abuse."
What can humanist parents use in the battle against religious indoctrination?
Groups call on British government to replace compulsory collective worship in schools with inclusive assemblies
Parental rights vs children's rights: debating the role of religious institutions in Irish education system
Irish children subjected to religious dogma in order to get an education in school system dominated by Catholic church
Parental rights vs children's rights: debating the role of religious institutions in Irish education system
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