Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Christian Girl Muzzled, Sues Kansas City School

A seventh-grade student at Robert Clark Middle School in Bonner Springs, Kansas, a suburb of the Kansas City area, has sued her school in federal court for restricting her free speech rights by forbidding her to give fellow students a flier with Bible verses this past September.
Banned: The distribution of “religious materials…on school grounds or in any attendance facility before, during, or after the school day or a school activity.”
-- Bonner Springs/Edwardsville Unified School District No. 204
For background, read Christmas Banned in Schools Across America and also read Atheists' Lawsuits Force Jesus Out of Ohio Schools as well as 'Creepy' Pastors Banned from Washington School

In addition, read God NOT Your Idol, Says Teacher; Michael Jackson Is

Click to view TV News report from Kansas City

-- From "A dispute over a prayer group flier has lead to a federal lawsuit" posted at KMBZ (Kansas City radio) 12/3/13

Lawyer Jeremy Tedesco filed the lawsuit [on behalf of the student].

"They said because of separation of church and state, our fliers were illegal. That's was the explanation she received from the teacher who actually enforced the restriction and their policies confirm that. Their policies expressly say no religious materials can be distrusted at school. Well that's a flat ban on religious materials," said Tedesco.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kan. school reportedly prohibits student from posting fliers with Bible verses" by The Associated Press 12/3/13

The Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF], a conservative Christian group based in Scottsdale, Arizona, that advocates for religious rights, contends a counselor at Robert E. Clark Middle School in Bonner Springs violated the student's rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow the student to post fliers promoting the Sept. 25 "See You at the Pole" event, a national event in which teens pray around their school flagpoles.

The group contends in the lawsuit filed Nov. 26 in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, that the counselor told the student the fliers, which contained Bible verses, could not be posted or distributed at school because of their religious content. The ADF, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the student identified only as "K.R.," also said the district has a policy banning distribution of religious materials on school grounds but allows other types of materials to be posted and distributed.

The district has a policy prohibiting distribution of religious materials on school grounds because "different entities request to distribute information to students constantly. If all entities who requested were allowed it would be disruptive to the school environment," [school superintendent Dan] Brungardt said in an email.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kansas school bans fliers with Bible verses" posted at Alliance Defending Freedom 12/2/13

The school has allowed the posting of a variety of materials, including a hand-made poster of a tombstone with the words “RIP” and a poster of rap artist Lil’ Wayne with the words “Good Kush and Alcohol.”

A school counselor confronted the student at a school dance in front of her friends and informed her that the fliers were “illegal” because of the Bible verses and could not be posted or distributed at school.

The Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit, K.R. v. Unified School District No. 204, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, explains, “Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. Non-disruptive, private student expression is protected by the First Amendment.” Moreover, “the government may not discriminate against speech based on its viewpoint, regardless of the forum.”

The lawsuit also notes that the student’s posting of the material did not “interfere with the orderly conduct of educational activity within the school.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Seventh grader files lawsuit after school staff destroys prayer flyers" by Melissa Stern, WDAF-TV4 (Kansas City) 12/3/13

The lawsuit states other students were permitted to post flyers containing other material. The lawsuit cited one student flyer of a tombstone that read “RIP” and “Here Lies K-STATE … I AM GLAD YOU ARE GONE FOREVER BECAUSE YOU TRY TO BE GOOD AS KU BUT YOUR ARE NOT.” Another example included flyers promoting rap artist Lil’ Wayne with the words “Good Kush and Alcohol.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the Clark Middle School newspaper “The Panther Press” sent home an issue in November with a ‘glowing’ review of “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” an M-rated video game that is “replete with graphic violence, profanity, drug use and nudity.”

K.R.’s posters were handmade with colored markers. One read, “For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16?

A second flyer read, “But God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

The root issue is American Religious Liberty vs. Anti-Christian Totalitarianism