Thursday, July 30, 2015

Atheist Prayer Complaint Costs Miss. School $7500+

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves fined the Rankin County (Mississippi) School District $7,500 plus attorney's fees, etc. as a result of legal action by the American Humanist Association concerning prayer at a high school awards ceremony, and for Gideons Bible distribution at an elementary school.
"As long as there is testing in schools, we believe that teachers, principals and students will continue to pray."
--  Superintendent Lynn Weathersby (statement via Fred Harrell, School Board attorney)
For background, read Pennsylvania School Staff to Mosque for Islamic Training and also read Students Required to Pretend Being Muslim in Wisconsin as well as Florida School Teaches Islam Including Prayer Rugs

And read Rankin County Schools Attacked for Countering 'Gay Clubs'

In addition, read how it's OK for schools to invade pre-teen student uteruses and for schools to sexualize children with the Gay Agenda (including transgenderism).

-- From "Judge finds Rankin County School District in contempt over school prayer" posted at WAPT-TV16 (Jackson, MS) 7/13/15

A federal judge said the Rankin County School District is in contempt of court for continuing to promote Christianity during school hours after it agreed to stop.

The district first got into trouble when a Northwest Rankin High School student sued over having to attend a school assembly that promoted Christianity. The district agreed in 2013 to settle the suit, and was supposed to implement a policy that activities during school hours would not advance, endorse or inhibit any religion.

However, in 2014, the same student attended an honors assembly that was opened by a minister's prayer.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Judge: Rankin schools violated religion policy, agreement" by Kate Royals, The Clarion-Ledger 7/13/15

In 2013, a Northwest Rankin High School student sued the district and then-principal Charles Frazier over a series of Christian assemblies held at the school. The district agreed it had violated the student's First Amendment rights and settled the lawsuit by entering into an agreement and paying the plaintiff's attorney fees.

However, the incidents that took place in 2014 prompted the American Humanist Association to file a motion for contempt, accusing the district of not enforcing its Religion in Public Schools policy and abiding by the terms of the agreement.

The district responded that because the ceremony with the prayer was not mandatory, it did not violated the First Amendment, and that because school officials cannot be expected to know constitutional law, it shouldn't be held liable. However, Reeves wrote in the order that each argument "crumbles under the least possible scrutiny."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Mississippi School District Fined Over $7,500 for 'Proselytizing Christianity' After Minister Prays at Event" by Samuel Smith, Christian Post Reporter 7/21/15

The school district was additionally ordered to pay the [unamed] student $5,000 because the lawsuit exposed that the school district allowed Gideons International to hand out Bibles to fifth graders at nearby Northwest Rankin Elementary School in October 2014.

In his summary, [Judge] Reeves accused the school district of trying to indoctrinate students with Christianity.

"It deliberately went out of its way to entangle Christian indoctrination in the education process," the judge argued. "From the accounts detailed in the record, it appears that incorporating religious script and prayers with school activities has been a long-standing tradition of the district."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Click headlines below to read previous articles:

Atheists, Satanists Force Bible Ban in Florida Schools

Atheists Force Bible Bans at Colleges Across America

Christian Clubs Banned from Myriad Colleges and Universities

Texas School Supt. Tells Atheists to Go Fly a Kite