Here’s an interesting story from the Washington Post.
Amber Mangum was a frequent reader during lunch breaks at her Prince George’s County middle school, silently soaking up the adventures of Harry Potter and other tales in the spare minutes before afternoon classes. The habit was never viewed as a problem — not, a lawsuit alleges, until the book she was reading was the Bible.A vice principal at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Laurel last month ordered Amber, then 12, to stop reading the Bible or face punishment, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by Amber’s mother. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, alleges that the vice principal’s actions violated the girl’s civil rights.
I am going to hold off on commenting on this until more information becomes available. So far the school has not commented.
(Hat tip: Spunky Homeschool)
October 11th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I for one am on the side of the school in this one. The law says there is to be a separation of church and state; the way I have always interpreted things is that includes the reading of the Bible on school grounds. People may not like it, but it is the law.
October 11th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Nope… This is a case where, given what information is here, the school is clearly in the wrong… I imagine that things will be corrected quickly…
Like it or not, the law is pretty clear on this one… It has been hashed out and rehashed over and over again in most every circut and in the supreme court (McCollum v. Board of Ed., Engle v. Vitale, Abington Township v. Schempp, Epperson v. Arkansas, Stone v. Graham, Widmar v. Vincint, Westside v. Mergens, and on and on…)
I believe that the main test of policy affecting church-state interaction came from Lemon v. Kurtzman and it basically came down to three points: 1. Policy must have secular legislative purpose; 2. It’s effect must not advance or inhibit religion; 3. It must not cause more of a relationship between Gov’t and religion than is necessary… Don’t quote me on all that, it’s from memory… Also, while that test still stands and is cited regluarly, it is from the 60’s or 70’s and has been refined and reinterpreted quite a bit (so don’t go throwing it around like you know what you’re talking about until you’ve done some research)…
Schools regularly do things that they are not allowed to, usually nothing happens, sometimes (as in this case, I imagine) things get fixed quickly…