Posted on 05/07/2004 7:18:02 AM PDT by prairiebreeze
ANDERSON, SC (Talon News) -- A South Carolina teacher has been placed on paid leave for affirming a student's question about Jesus. Jean Byce, a teaching assistant at La France Elementary in the Bible belt of Anderson, South Carolina, explained to parents and teachers on Wednesday night that a curious student wanted to know her opinion about Jesus.
"In a school in a community like ours, where 99 percent of the people are Christians, children talk about Jesus a lot," Byce told the NBC affiliate WYFF-TV. "A student sang a song to me and asked me a question about Jesus being in heaven forever and believing in Jesus and going to heaven, and asked if I believed that, and I said 'Yes.'"
However, John Cummings, the parent of another child in the classroom, became upset by Byce's answer and voiced his concern to the school district.
"This is a district matter between the district and its employee," Cummings told WYFF. "If people want the truth they will contact the district."
Byce said she has previously experienced a similar reaction from this parent when she explained to the children about the Christian fish symbol.
Despite the fact that she honestly answered the child's question, Byce is now facing a strong reprimand for allegedly spreading her religious beliefs.
"Unfortunately, the people at the district level and the attorneys for our district see this as a violation of the law and as insubordination on my part," Byce commented to WYFF.
Dr. Gary Burgess, who serves as the superintendent of Anderson County School District 4, confirms that Byce is on "paid administrative leave" and that they are "investigating."
The school district has received an enormous number of calls from citizens who believe Byce is being singled out for her religious beliefs.
"I think it's important that the public understands that when an allegation is made about employees' performance or conduct, it's standard practice to place that employee on paid leave during the investigation," remarked Anderson County School District 4 spokeswoman Dr. Joann Avery to WYFF.
She added, "Our main focus is to do what's best for children and all children."
He offered to have her transferred to another school, but Byce refused and says she will likely appeal the school district's decision.
Andrea White, who serves as the legal counsel for the school district, said Byce should have answered the student's question in a "general" way rather than sharing her personal beliefs.
"If a student asks a religious question like, 'Is Jesus in Heaven?', the best response is to give a factual statement like, 'People of the Christian faith believe that Jesus is in Heaven, but other religions don't believe that'," White recommended. "By speaking in general, factual terms, you can answer a child's question and not profess your faith at the same time."
But Family Research Council spokeswoman Genevieve Wood told Talon News that a teacher who professes the Christian faith should not be forced to muzzle her own view if a direct question is posed to her by a student.
"People who care about religious freedom should be very concerned about this," Wood exclaimed to Talon News.
Wood noted that if an environmentalist teacher professes to students that she believes in keeping the air clean, she would not face the same consequences for sharing her beliefs as the Christian teacher would.
Vowing to fight for her job, Byce said she is not going to compromise her Christian beliefs during this ordeal.
"We want to be Christlike about this, that we're not angry with anybody," Byce expressed to WYFF. "We're not upset with anybody."
If Byce decides to sue the school district, the case could head all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the heart of this issue is whether a teacher answering a student's religious question is tantamount to "promoting religion," which is forbidden by the courts.
Interestingly, many conservatives argue that public schools foster a hostile environment for Christian students through the teaching of evolution and disallowing prayer in schools.
As a result of this controversy, the school district has scheduled a community forum on May 13 to discuss the issue of religion in public schools.
Byce's fate may be decided as early as today.
It will be interesting to see if this case goes to the Supreme Court.
Prairie
If you told me I'd have to spend the rest of my earthly life in a landfill near Pittsburgh, I'd be p.o.'d---but tell be I'll be forcibly sent to Tatooine, and I'll just laugh at you.
She gave a factual answer, which was simply yes. This is equivalent of firing someone for being Christian. If the shoe was on the other foot and a student inquired to a teacher if they were an atheist and the teacher said yes, would that be grounds to fire the teacher? The ACLU would be on that case like flies on crap.
US schools: "If people want the truth they will contact the district."
I wonder what Mr. Cummings standing in the community is now.
Why do peoples ears bleed at the utterance of "Jesus"? I seemed to have missed a lot of this hysteria growing up and I ain't that old.
That is the kind of clipped response you get from someone taking serious flack for an unpopular position. I think the District is wrong on this, the teacher shouldn't have to lie or answer in lawyerly fashion but should be able to give an honest and straight answer to a question. As long as it was an accurate response, she should be cleared.
If only she had said:
If a liberal teacher professes to students that she supports John Kerry, then she would not face the same consequences, however she would have been promoted!
Sad to see American culture being replaced by leftist politics.
Obviously the teacher should have answered, "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that my answer may tend to incriminate me".
Which shows an important fact about many so-called "atheists." They aren't atheists at all, they are angry anti-theists. It isn't that they don't believe in God, it is that they actively hate a very real God they already know. The main thrust of their hatred comes in the form of denying other people the freedom to worship God.
A real atheist would probably agree that this is stupid. Nobody would have cared if the kid had asked if Zeus was on Mt Olympus, and to a real atheist, the questions would be identical.
The angry anti-theist, however, firmly believes in the God he denies, so the Zeus question would be no problem but the Jesus question produces a knee jerk reaction.
The standard Christian belief is that everyone (including Christians) deserves to spend eternity in agonizing torture, so don't feel too special.
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