Mark White For Congress Fundraiser
Tuesday, June 8, 2006
Owen Brennan’s
6150 Poplar
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
$50 suggested per couple
For some it might be “thank God I finally made it”. For a few local Munford High students it involved trading faxes with the ACLU. And for one teacher, it involved losing her teaching contract. All over getting planned graduation prayers stopped:
School officials gave her the news that they would not be renewing her contract on May 12. That’s the same day a letter was faxed to the school by an attorney representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. The letter requested that the school cancel all prayers during Monday night’s graduation program.
The ACLU had apparently been alerted by students in the ACLU club on campus, which the embattled teacher was a faculty adviser.
The letter was a response from the ACLU office in Nashville to a complaint filed by about a dozen Munford High School students who said they were concerned that prayers would be a part of the Munford graduation exercises. They asked that all prayers be cancelled.
After receiving the letter, the school acted cautiously and consulted lawyers along with the American Center for Law and Justice. The ACLJ’s website didn’t have anything specific on this story, but there was this, which is quite similar to what ACLU spokesperson Hedy Weinberg said,
“If the valedictorian wants to recite a prayer or thank his or her God during the time designated to them, they can do that and should not be told they can’t,” Weinberg said. “Our focus was to ensure that the school adhere to the constitutional guarantees and not have invited guests or school officials reciting prayer or jeopardizing religious freedom.”
Well, maybe she’s right, but the students took matters into their own hands by reciting the Lord’s Prayer during the designated moment of silence. That’s an amazing example of togetherness.
But taking such matters into their own hands is apparently not unique to Munford or Tennessee. Uncle Pavian tells us it also recently happened in Kentucky, over the same kind of thing
RUSSELL SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) - The senior class at a southern Kentucky high school gave their response Friday night to a federal judge’s order banning prayer at commencement.
About 200 seniors stood during the principal’s opening remarks and began reciting the Lord’s Prayer, prompting a standing ovation from a standing-room only crowd at the Russell County High School gymnasium.
The thunderous applause drowned out the last part of the prayer.
As he points out on his blog, a judge may issue an order but if the masses choose to ignore it then what’s the point? An analogy would be our current immigration statutes. Of course, that opens a rule of law debate, doesn’t it?
That’s why the Munford example was much preferable to the Kentucky version. Rather than defying a court order they simply voiced their opinion during the moment of silence. It worked, but surely it leaves future ‘moments of silence’ wide open for ACLU action, such as forced silence during the moment of silence, etc.
