More 9th "Circus" Antics: Can The USSC Overrule This One, Please?
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a serious blow to parents of students at Excelsior School--part of the Byron School District in California. This case revolves around a pair of students, and their families, outraged over being taught about Islam in school.
Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003957.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/18/BAGLFFQENB1.DTL
A Contra Costa County school was educating seventh-graders about Islam, not indoctrinating them, in role-playing sessions in which students used Muslim names and recited language from prayers, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit by two Christian students and their parents, who accused the Byron Union School District of unconstitutionally endorsing a religious practice.
"The Islam program activities were not overt religious exercises that raise Establishment Clause concerns,'' the three-judge panel said, referring to the First Amendment ban on government sanctioning a religion.
Really? What would the judges care to call it? A lesson usually takes a day or two, maybe three, to teach, not three weeks. And based on the curriculum involved, this could not be anything but a form of indoctrination. See the link to the PDF below to view the curriculum. As a matter of fact, click on Michelle's link above, and read the excerpts she cut and pasted on her post from the PDF.
During the history course at Excelsior School in the fall of 2001, the teacher, using an instructional guide, told the students they would adopt roles as Muslims for three weeks to help them learn what Muslims believe.
She encouraged them to use Muslim names, recited prayers in class and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.
That sure sounds like participation in a religion that is being endorsed, taught, and pushed by the school district. Why is ANY religion being taught in the schools at all? In Arizona when kids reach junior high, they may opt to take a seminary course that teaches about their particular religion. They go off campus (usually directly across the street) to conduct their studies because you cannot have ANY religious teaching occurring on a campus in Maricopa County. If there is to be a separation of church and state--a phrase the liberals love to use, and hate having it thrown back in their faces--then Islam should also be excluded.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled in favor of the school district in 2003, saying that the class had an instructional purpose and that students had engaged in no actual religious exercises.
No actual religious exercises? What does she call prayers? Fasting? "Role-playing" Muslims by taking Muslim names? The curriculum even calls for a beginning of, and completion of, the Five Pillars of Faith. This sounds pretty active to me. I guess for the morons on the 9th Circuit Court an actual exercise would have included a trip to the local mosque.
The appeals court upheld her ruling Thursday in a three-paragraph decision that was not published as a precedent for future cases, which generally is an indication that the court considers the legal issue to be clear from past rulings.
The court cited its 1994 ruling rejecting a suit by evangelical Christian parents in Woodland (Yolo County) who objected to elementary school children reading texts that contained tales and role-playing exercises about witches. In that case, the court said classroom activities related to the texts, which included casting a make-believe spell, were secular instruction rather than religious rituals.
And yet wiccans have demanded to be recognized as a religion in the United States, and have been granted that status. Regardless of what it is, religion has no place in the public schools. If we cannot have teachings of Christianity or Judaism in the schools--out of fear that some little atheist may be offended and cry--then the same applies to wicca, to Islam, to ANY religion. It does not get taught. It should not be taught.
The brevity of Thursday's ruling "underscores the fact that what the district and its teachers did was entirely within the mainstream of educational practice,'' said Linda Lye, attorney for the Byron schools.
The mainstream? Tell me she is kidding, please. The mainstream that Ms. Lye (appropriate for a lawyer, yes?) is overlooking is the one that has been force-fed "separation of church and state" for the last sixty, or so, years. So, if that was the mainstream, why all of a sudden is this now the mainstream. I will reiterate this again: If Christianity cannot be taught in schools, if Judaism cannot be taught in schools, then NO religion should be taught in schools. The Constitution is explicit in the very meaning that everything will receive equal treatment when looked at. If Islam is to be taught in schools, then we have a whole host of religions in the US that deserve time to be taught, as well. In short, this is an all-or-nothing issue here.
Edward White of the Thomas More Center, the attorney in the case for the two children and their parents, said he will ask the full appeals court for a rehearing. He said the panel failed to address his argument that the district violated parents' rights.
"What happened in this classroom was clearly an endorsement of religion and indoctrination of children in the Islamic religion, which would never have stood if it were a class on Christianity or Judaism,'' White said.
BINGO! Give Mr. White the kewpie doll! And quite frankly, I must agree with Jay over at Stop the ACLU.
http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2005/11/18/9th-circuit-court-says-teaching-children-to-be-muslims-ok/
Can we find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all.
Here, here. Equal treatment under the law, and all, and I would be for that. But, God forbid we do something like that. God forbid we try to make children more tolerant of ALL religions (including the one that the ACLU truly despises--Christianity). Too bad that little Johnny and Janie might be offended by the fact that their teacher has decided that ALL his/her students will learn the Islamic faith, despite their own religious upbringing. (I would like to point out that one of the basic tenets of Christianity is "I am the Lord thy God; Thou shall have no false gods before Me. By acting Muslim, by studying the tenets of faith of Islam, I would consider this contrary to the basic tenets of my faith. On those grounds alone, I would refuse to participate. Three weeks down the toilet, or not, but I would refuse to participate in such a blatant attempt to indoctrinate.)
And much like Fields just a couple of weeks ago, I ask again, when do the parents have the right to step in and tell a teacher to get stuffed? The parents are the ultimate arbiters of their children, their upbringing, and their education. Teachers and school districts need to remember that. They are already facing the backlash from parents when parents remove their children from the public schools, and resort to charter, private, parochial, or home-school educational options over the indoctrination-driven curriculum provided by the NEA and the teacher's unions.
The Bunny ;)
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a serious blow to parents of students at Excelsior School--part of the Byron School District in California. This case revolves around a pair of students, and their families, outraged over being taught about Islam in school.
Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003957.htm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/18/BAGLFFQENB1.DTL
A Contra Costa County school was educating seventh-graders about Islam, not indoctrinating them, in role-playing sessions in which students used Muslim names and recited language from prayers, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit by two Christian students and their parents, who accused the Byron Union School District of unconstitutionally endorsing a religious practice.
"The Islam program activities were not overt religious exercises that raise Establishment Clause concerns,'' the three-judge panel said, referring to the First Amendment ban on government sanctioning a religion.
Really? What would the judges care to call it? A lesson usually takes a day or two, maybe three, to teach, not three weeks. And based on the curriculum involved, this could not be anything but a form of indoctrination. See the link to the PDF below to view the curriculum. As a matter of fact, click on Michelle's link above, and read the excerpts she cut and pasted on her post from the PDF.
During the history course at Excelsior School in the fall of 2001, the teacher, using an instructional guide, told the students they would adopt roles as Muslims for three weeks to help them learn what Muslims believe.
She encouraged them to use Muslim names, recited prayers in class and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.
That sure sounds like participation in a religion that is being endorsed, taught, and pushed by the school district. Why is ANY religion being taught in the schools at all? In Arizona when kids reach junior high, they may opt to take a seminary course that teaches about their particular religion. They go off campus (usually directly across the street) to conduct their studies because you cannot have ANY religious teaching occurring on a campus in Maricopa County. If there is to be a separation of church and state--a phrase the liberals love to use, and hate having it thrown back in their faces--then Islam should also be excluded.
U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled in favor of the school district in 2003, saying that the class had an instructional purpose and that students had engaged in no actual religious exercises.
No actual religious exercises? What does she call prayers? Fasting? "Role-playing" Muslims by taking Muslim names? The curriculum even calls for a beginning of, and completion of, the Five Pillars of Faith. This sounds pretty active to me. I guess for the morons on the 9th Circuit Court an actual exercise would have included a trip to the local mosque.
The appeals court upheld her ruling Thursday in a three-paragraph decision that was not published as a precedent for future cases, which generally is an indication that the court considers the legal issue to be clear from past rulings.
The court cited its 1994 ruling rejecting a suit by evangelical Christian parents in Woodland (Yolo County) who objected to elementary school children reading texts that contained tales and role-playing exercises about witches. In that case, the court said classroom activities related to the texts, which included casting a make-believe spell, were secular instruction rather than religious rituals.
And yet wiccans have demanded to be recognized as a religion in the United States, and have been granted that status. Regardless of what it is, religion has no place in the public schools. If we cannot have teachings of Christianity or Judaism in the schools--out of fear that some little atheist may be offended and cry--then the same applies to wicca, to Islam, to ANY religion. It does not get taught. It should not be taught.
The brevity of Thursday's ruling "underscores the fact that what the district and its teachers did was entirely within the mainstream of educational practice,'' said Linda Lye, attorney for the Byron schools.
The mainstream? Tell me she is kidding, please. The mainstream that Ms. Lye (appropriate for a lawyer, yes?) is overlooking is the one that has been force-fed "separation of church and state" for the last sixty, or so, years. So, if that was the mainstream, why all of a sudden is this now the mainstream. I will reiterate this again: If Christianity cannot be taught in schools, if Judaism cannot be taught in schools, then NO religion should be taught in schools. The Constitution is explicit in the very meaning that everything will receive equal treatment when looked at. If Islam is to be taught in schools, then we have a whole host of religions in the US that deserve time to be taught, as well. In short, this is an all-or-nothing issue here.
Edward White of the Thomas More Center, the attorney in the case for the two children and their parents, said he will ask the full appeals court for a rehearing. He said the panel failed to address his argument that the district violated parents' rights.
"What happened in this classroom was clearly an endorsement of religion and indoctrination of children in the Islamic religion, which would never have stood if it were a class on Christianity or Judaism,'' White said.
BINGO! Give Mr. White the kewpie doll! And quite frankly, I must agree with Jay over at Stop the ACLU.
http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2005/11/18/9th-circuit-court-says-teaching-children-to-be-muslims-ok/
Can we find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all.
Here, here. Equal treatment under the law, and all, and I would be for that. But, God forbid we do something like that. God forbid we try to make children more tolerant of ALL religions (including the one that the ACLU truly despises--Christianity). Too bad that little Johnny and Janie might be offended by the fact that their teacher has decided that ALL his/her students will learn the Islamic faith, despite their own religious upbringing. (I would like to point out that one of the basic tenets of Christianity is "I am the Lord thy God; Thou shall have no false gods before Me. By acting Muslim, by studying the tenets of faith of Islam, I would consider this contrary to the basic tenets of my faith. On those grounds alone, I would refuse to participate. Three weeks down the toilet, or not, but I would refuse to participate in such a blatant attempt to indoctrinate.)
And much like Fields just a couple of weeks ago, I ask again, when do the parents have the right to step in and tell a teacher to get stuffed? The parents are the ultimate arbiters of their children, their upbringing, and their education. Teachers and school districts need to remember that. They are already facing the backlash from parents when parents remove their children from the public schools, and resort to charter, private, parochial, or home-school educational options over the indoctrination-driven curriculum provided by the NEA and the teacher's unions.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 11:46 AM
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