WHere I live (Oklahoma) some teachers in some public schools take attendance at the "See you at the Polls" meetings and some give extra credit for those who attend. Students who do not attend are often shunned by others. In one school a young man was holding the door for students to enter the school but then closed it in the face of a girl, saying, "I do not hold the door for Jews." This is not a school sanctioned act -- rather it is the act of a student, but it does illustrate the social climate created by bringing religious zealotry to the school.

Paul Finkelman

--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, Oklahoma  74104-2499

918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Rick Duncan wrote:
Here is an interesting report, from the Alliance Defense Fund, about a recent case of censorship directed at students participating in "See You at the Pole" day: Since 1990, Christian students across America have gathered together one day a year to meet at their school flag pole to pray for their classmates, teachers, and the nation.

These gatherings (called “See You at the Pole”) are not school-sanctioned and are student-initiated. No one is forced to participate; it is strictly a voluntary event, held during non-class time.

Nevertheless, students in Barnegat, New Jersey, experienced a first-hand civics lesson in the misinterpretation of the First Amendment when they attempted to gather around their school’s flag pole to pray.

On September 21st, three students at Russell O. Brackman Middle School met at the flagpole and started to pray. They were interrupted by a school administrator who thought their activity looked “suspicious.” She reportedly told the students that not only could! they not participate in “See You at the Pole” but that their audible prayers were creating a “disturbance” and they would have to cease as they were “mixing” religion and school, causing a potential “sticky situation.”

The students and their parents contacted ADF, and attorney Jeremy Tedesco sent a letter to the school, explaining to the principal that “the censorship of the students’ prayer as part of the See You at the Pole event is blatantly unconstitutional under firmly established law and is a violation of the students’ First Amendment rights.” To read the full text of Jeremy’s letter, go to www.telladf.org/UserDocs/TomsickLetter.pdf <http://email.adfmail.org:81/CT00005904MjgwMzQ1Nw==.HTML>. ADF also provided an informational legal memorandum (available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SYATP_ADF_Memo_2005.pdf <http://email.adfmail.org:81/CT00005906MjgwMzQ1Nw==.HTML>) describing the constitutional rights of students who wanted to take part in the event.

Upon receipt of the letter, the school allowed the students to hold a “do over” See You at the Pole event on October 19th. This time, approximately 50 students and members of the community, and a local radio station, reportedly participated as well!

One of the students involved is now working to start a Bible Club, and has signed up fifteen members thus far. I know many of you deny that the public schools are hostile to religion, but these cases are Legion. But at least this case had a happy ending with an even larger group participating in the "do over."

Rick Duncan




Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902

"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered." --The Prisoner

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