And so it begins: Declartion of Independence banned from a school

[insein]

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6911883

Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School
Wed Nov 24, 2004 04:12 PM ET


By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment.

Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.

Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.

Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.

Its coming to a head people. The communists and socialists are pushing foward in their quest to rid the country of religion and all its religious history. When will the rest of the people realize that if we wait too long to fight this itll be too late?

 

[Eightball]

I live just a few miles from the city of Cupertino, where this school is located. In fact I did all of my elementary schooling in the Cupertino Elementary School District, back in the 1950's-60's.

I still remember when eating lunch at the school Cafeteria, how we would all say, grace before eating. That was Collin's Elementary School, in the Cupertino Elementary School District!!!! There was absolutely no P.C. to worry about. I even remember there was a kid in one of my classes that was a Jehovah's Witness, and he would stand up when we would say the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning, but he wouldn't say anything or place his hand over his heart, because his religion taught that they(J.W.'s) were not to venerate/salute anything but Jehovah........or God as most people would say the name. The teacher didn't force him to do the pledge, nor did any of the kids tease him about it. It was no big deal. His faith was respected. I guess nowadays, it would be considered cruelty to this kid to have him endure the peer pressure of not doing the pledge with the rest of us kids.

All I know, is that the Cupertino schools back in those days didn't have a problem with the "G" word. I'm glad that I didn't have to go to Cupertino schools as they are now.

It's very regretable that this principal has this power to interpret what is P.C. or not. Actually U.S. History education is very lacking in many of our public schools, or it has been changed/reinterpretted to omitt much of the expressions of religious faith of our fore fathers. I've always wondered why WW2 and for that matter WW1 has been not covered to much extent in public school history education. I don't remember receiving instruction or text books that covered those two great wars of the 20th century that our country sacrificed so much for.

I've heard that many of the more recent history texts for Public schools seem to be giving a great deal of coverage of William Jefferson Clinton's presidency and very little to Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. What's going on here! I do think parents need to "smart up" and start looking more closely at the homework, and curriculum that there kids are getting. The educators aren't going to save the day, it's going to be parents that start worrying about what their kids are getting while away from home from 9am to 3pm.

One side note about Cupertino, California. Back in the 1950's, Cupertino was just a farming town in Santa Clara Valley/Santa Clara County, located at the Southern tip of San Francisco Bay. Santa Clara County produced/grew more than a third of all the canned/processed fruits for the U.S. In fact a famous brand of dried fruits, "Sunsweet" started in this valley. Santa Clara County went through a major upheval in the late 50's-early 60's as the transistor revolution started to change it's economy to high-tech industries. This valley(Santa Clara) is now called Silicon Valley.........yes Cupertino is one of the little towns that transitioned from many square miles of beautiful fruit orchards to concrete tilt-up buildings housing all the major player in electronics. Infact, Cupertino is Apple Computer's original home! The ethnic nature of Cupertino is now predominantly Asian, as a great influx of high tech engineers and researchers flooded into Silicon Valley companies. Back as late as the early 1970's, Cupertino was still mostly Caucasion, racially, but when you drive through Cupertino, you would be amazed at all the Asian owned businesses. Every where you will see store signs with Asian characters instead of English. It's almost like entering another country.

Cupertino, has also become one of the more affluent areas in California to live. Median home prices are easily near the $700,000.00 level. This median price range includes small square footage(1,300-1,700 sq. ft), ranch style, tract, homes with lot sizes ranging from 6,000-11,000 sq. ft.! Most of those homes were built during the big home building boom of the 50's and 60's. The newer Cupertino homes are easily pushing $1 million......and of course are a little larger, but the lot sizes haven't increased at all.

Anyway, Cupertino has gone through an ethnic change, from mostly white, Caucasion, with a few Latinos, who worked the orchards to mostly affluent Asian population, sprinkled with Silicon Valley Yuppies too. These folks tend to be less religious and more materialistic in nature. Many are V.P.'s and CEO's of small to medium tech firms. Many made big money during the big high tech stock boom of yester-year. You would think that they would be conservative in nature, but as Cupertino became more affluent......and Audis, Jags, and Mercedes became the status cars of the up and coming high techys......these folks are the left-overs of the Clinton era stock market boom. Attitudes have changes on the roads in Santa Clara Valley too. It just seems that the need to succeed and be the richest, has affected the small town atmosphere, and basically change Cupertino permanently, as well as the other cities of Santa Clara County. Moral needs are secondary to having the most prestigest European cars..........or Japanese Luxury makes(Lexus/Infinity).

I wonder if this thing with the Christian teacher and the Anti-God principal is just a symptom of a city/region that grew too fast, and left behind it's moral, and historical roots..........and embraced a man-made relativism to survive in it's own mire? Yes, it's now a Blue area, but once it was a red area. What happened? I think that this moral relativism will gradually become old, unfulfilling, and then what will result will be moral bankruptcy. Often, what follows on the heals of Moral Bankruptcy, is a hunger for truth, and constancy. I think that many of our Blue areas may experience a revival of true faith in God as a result of realizing the folly of their man-made ways of survival amidst wealth and loss.

Regards, Eightballsidepocket

 

[CivilLiberty]

Its coming to a head people. The communists and socialists are pushing foward in their quest to rid the country of religion and all its religious history. When will the rest of the people realize that if we wait too long to fight this itll be too late?

The school didn't ban the Declaration of I.


The school banned a particular TEACHER from USING the DofI and other documents to preach religious doctrine and further his religious agenda.


A

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The school didn't ban the Declaration of I.


The school banned a particular TEACHER from USING the DofI and other documents to preach religious doctrine and further his religious agenda.


A

What poppycock! I'm sure that this teacher did not have his own religious "agenda". He sounds like a teacher who is teaching history the way it used to be taught - the correct way.

If you take out all the religious references to God (and there were lots and lots of them!) that our forefathers used in all their documents, you would be hiding the TRUTH of our history and heritage.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

-from the Declaration of Independence

 

[theim]

The school didn't ban the Declaration of I.


The school banned a particular TEACHER from USING the DofI and other documents to preach religious doctrine and further his religious agenda.


A

And what religious agenda is that?

Get a fucking grip! Do you realize what you are doing to these kids?! You are teaching them that just be being forced to have the word GOD within their eyesight, they are being forced towards a "religious agenda".

Religion is part of the history of our country. You might not like it, being that it teaches that some fringe behaviors are WRONG, but THATS HOW IT IS.

These kids are going to grow up thinking any mention of God, no matter how vague, constitutes an attempted conversion. God is nearly everywhere in our society. They are going to see something like "In God we Trust" on the money when they collect their paychecks and are going to need therapy. You are going to destroy their lives.

ALLAH! ALLAH! ALLAH!

You see that? Do you now feel threatened? By writing Allah, am I forcing Islam down your throat?

If your answer is yes, Go seek help. Now.

 

[Merlin]

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

If the above amendment was interpreted correctly, it gives permission to teach religion in schools. Is just says congress can't make a law making one religion preferred over another one. I don't recall congress even trying to make a law establishing one religion over another. Each student has his/her choice of which religion they turn to, or none at all. I'm glad I'm in my life's midnight hour. I couldn't take too much more of these idiot non American Judges not letting the teachers teach the truth.

 

[theim]

But the truth could hurt someone's feeeeeelings