Posted on 12/15/2004 5:19:53 PM PST by Dog Gone
A religious liberties law firm accused Plano school officials today of violating students' constitutional rights by forbidding them to hand out candy canes and pencils with religious messages on them.
Attorneys with the Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute said they planned to file a federal lawsuit claiming the district has an unconstitutional censorship policy that victimizes students.
Several parents and students planned to discuss their concerns at an afternoon news conference. Attorneys intended to notify the district of the lawsuit at that time and file the petition later Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sherman.
Plano schools spokeswoman Nancy Long did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press.
She previously has denied that district policy forbids students from passing out materials with religious messages; rather, she has said each school has a central distribution area where such materials can be left for students to pick up at their own choosing.
"This lawsuit includes a large amount of evidence that demonstrates the pervasive religious hostility in Plano ISD," said Hiram Sasser, the Liberty Legal Institute's director of litigation.
Last week, Plano school officials sent a letter home requesting that parents not send their children to school with anything green or red this holiday season, Sasser said. All cups, plates, napkins and icing must be white or the children violate the district's policy, he said.
"These government officials have lost all common sense. This Christmastime and religious censorship is not the law and this discrimination must stop," said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for Liberty Legal Institute. "Our children are the ones suffering from this discrimination. Our schools are not zones of religious censorship."
Headline:
Color-blind 6 year-old arrested over red napkin - school board sued for millions
Or the computer nerd kid might say, "Teacher,
"Everyone knows that the international standard for "RED" in HTML is "#FF0000". This color is "#FF0101"..."
(This ruling is especially silly: the use of red and green colors at Yuletide has a pagan origin)
"Candy canes can be mistaken for guns under certain circumstances."
Back when I was a kid (eyes glaze over at this time) we used to suck them down to a razor-sharp point and jab one another with them. I mean, it wasn't Christmas until at least ONE of us was bleeding from a puncture wound to the forearm or thigh.
What a generation of wussies we're raising, LOL!
I've just got to say that that is the most gorgeous Christmas Tree gif I've seen on the web this year.
Thank you! I love shiney, sparkly, festive things!
Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas to you!
Trees are green .. should we ban them??
Roses are red .. guess we should bann them too
Good thing the color white is ok .. otherwise we would have to ban snow
Glue is legal ... it's color is white
INTREP - EDUCATION - Survive
That cracks me up!
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