Posted on 07/11/2005 11:13:58 AM PDT by Terriergal
School bench message said too religious
E-mail this story to a friend | Printable version
|
|
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - A simple message greets students arriving at Marietta High School - Jesus Loves You!
The words are inscribed on a bench located outside of the school's cafeteria and near the spot where school buses drop off and pick up students. Private donations from the school's PTA paid for the bench as part of a larger fund-raising campaign more than four years ago at the school, located on Dallas Highway just west of downtown Marietta.
While school officials say the bench has been in its current location for several years, one Marietta parent is now raising questions about the "overly religious" message it conveys.
|
|
|
|
David Bernknopf - a former CNN producer and media consultant whose son and daughter attend nearby A.L. Burruss Elementary - said he recently noticed the bench and asked Marietta City Schools officials to look into the legality of having a religious message displayed at a public school.
"I saw it, I questioned it and I asked them what their stance was on it," he said.
The controversy comes just a week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued two divergent rulings relating to displays of the Ten Commandments at courthouses in Kentucky and Texas.
No lawsuit is planned at this point, Bernknopf said, and he has "no issue so far" with the bench. But he said his stance on the bench will depend on the legal opinion provided by the school system about the bench's presence at the school.
"I think its best at this point to give them to opportunity to figure out where they stand," Bernknopf said.
Marietta Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck said her office now is in the process of investigating who specifically donated the money to install the bench, how long it has been at the school and whether the message inscribed on the bench complies with the law. Attorney Clem Doyle represents the Marietta School Board.
So far, Dr. Lembeck, who officially assumed her post July 1, said her investigation shows the bench was first funded as part of a Marietta High School PTA fund-raising event in 2000 or 2001 and has been at the school since the new campus opened in August 2001 under then-principal Gordon Pritz. Who specifically commissioned the bench as part of the fund-raising drive remains uncertain, Dr. Lembeck said.
|
|
"That bench has been there for years," she said.
Two years ago, the Marietta school board approved a policy governing the names of individuals placed on benches, rooms or in others locations in local schools in exchange for a private donation. The district, however, has no policy regarding the types of messages that private groups can display in exchange for a donation, Dr. Lembeck said.
"This really has never come up before," she said. "It boils down to what the law tells us, and until we see what the law tells us and we get all that together, we can't take a position."
Asked about the issue on Tuesday, Marietta school board members said they were unaware that the bench with its "Jesus Loves You!" message even existed at the school until Bernknopf questioned it.
But if the situation came down to using school system funds to defend the bench in court, many board members said preserving the bench would not be their top priority.
"I don't want to take away from our main core purpose, which is educating our children," board chairwoman Irene Berens said. "We have tried not to focus on those things as an issue in our schools because we want to focus on the education of our children."
"I'm a Southern Baptist from way back and I believe that Jesus loves me, but I also believe that my job is to educate students," she said. "I hate for this issue to take away from what we need to be focusing on. There's a time and a place for everything."
School board member Tom Smith agreed, saying that he would not want to use money earmarked for education to fund a lawsuit to protect a religiously-themed bench at the high school.
"My biggest fear is that this is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal cost that otherwise might go to education," he said.
But Smith also said he worries about the possible First Amendment debate on the other side of the issue and whether the group that originally donated the bench could claim that their rights to free speech and religious expression are being infringed upon.
"The government cannot encourage religious expression, but it can't prevent it either," Smith said.
The neighboring Cobb County School District currently is embroiled in its own legal battle over the separation of church and state. The district is now appealing a federal court ruling requiring Cobb to remove stickers related to evolution placed inside district science books in 2002. The sticker reads that evolution is "a theory and not a fact," and opponents argued that the disclaimer was religiously motivated.
Like her district's board members, Dr. Lembeck said her primary goal would remain the education of Marietta children rather than defending the bench and its message.
"What we don't want is any kind of controversy that will take our attention away from kids," she said. "That's our primary obligation."
dburch@mdjonline.com
And I guess that means we could tear down the WWII memorial, since it's only been there a few years, not long enough to have any historical significance.
bravo.
ha!!!
I am.
Don't tell me you're one of those fools that believe in spontaneous generation.
Actually, the Bible has stood up quite well to those who have tried to disprove its authenticity. But of course, your mind is made up already, you've decided a transcendent intellect is impossible, and so the ridiculous theory of evolution therefore is the only alternative.
So why did you decide against the existence of God?
Then you haven't studied it. It is based upon the statement of faith "in the beginning, not God." Everything else flows from that. It certainly isn't science. I have a hard time understanding how the conservatives can believe screwels are getting 'evolution' right while they believe the screwels are getting everything else wrong.
Fossils of course don't prove anything. They prove that the animal died, not that it ever gave rise to anything else.
They prove that the animal died, and as well, prove that they were covered in a short time by sediment. Voila! Guess what happens in a flood?
Yep. The book of Genesis begins after the ice age when "the earth was null and void" (frozen solid). THEN man was created, along with a lot of other creatures who have no connection to the last animal planet age.
The couple 100 grand would no doubt NOT come out school admistration salaries.. but somewhere ELSE...
Of course.
Well, I guess I'm more of a fool than you. I don't think it existed before that. All of what Science has found is supported by the flood theory. However there is a lot of evolution that is contradicted by science, so they just don't talk about those things. (and false 'proofs' are still in the textbooks because they 'haven't found anything to replace them with yet.')
I've neither read nor heard of any law that prevents government from encouraging religious expression.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
What law was made that led to the religious message being placed on the bench in front of the school?
They found fossils buried or frozen in the ice - with grass still in their stomachs!
If you look at the time line, there's prehistoric animals, then a big gap, and then man and other new creatures appeared. Dinosaurs pre-date man.
The Bible speaks of WHAT WAS, what IS, and what will be in the coming age with the NEW heaven and new earth (millennium of peace). Every age is different.
yes, because the greenhouse effect was stopped by the canopy which collapsed and covered them with precip so quickly.
I didn't mean that sarcastically (the comment about being more of a fool than you) - I meant that in good humor btw. I understand how hard it is to reconcile what science keeps saying with what the Bible says.
Remember, this one is outdoors, not indoors, and the SCOTUS just said that made a lot of difference.
No, I haven't--they keep revising it.
HEEE hee hee.
I came upon this site,where many of you have chosen to criticize me personally and unfairly and without actual knowledge, so I thought I might correct your varied misunderstandings.
First, you all might wish to check out TODAY's Marietta Daily Journal for a folo on the bench issue.
Yes, this really is THE David who raised the issue.
Normally, I wouldn’t bother to respond to bloggers, but since so many of you have chosen to personally slander me, I thought I might provide you with some actual facts.
It always amuses me how people on both sides of the political spectrum make stuff up to suit their political goals and personal opinions.
So here are some facts.
Have at them
1. I haven’t filed a complaint, an objection or a lawsuit. I won’t. I’m not offended by the bench. I asked a simple question.
2. In light of the recent Supreme Court rulings, when I first saw the bench I had two concerns. That my tax money would have to go to pay to defend a lawsuit or that someone with a “religious” message most of us would consider offensive (Like Satan rules) would want their equal shot at a bench. So, I called my elected representatives and asked them what their policy was and whether they had thought about these issues.
3. I never said I would wait until the School Board makes a decision before deciding what my next step is. The newspaper quote is accurate. I WILL NOT SUE. There is no ‘next step’
4. I’m not a liberal.
5. I haven’t worked at CNN in years.
6. I did not take this to the press. The story was leaked by someone in the School District’s office. Because I do NOT want media attention on this, I have turned down multiple interview requests.
7. My son is an acolyte in our church. I participate in regular bible studies. Sorry if this doesn’t go with your “liberal, ACLU, atheist, godless, anti American, Communist” assumptions. But you are just wrong. Sorry to disappoint Rush Limbaugh and his fans, but Mr. Limbaugh checks his facts less than “the mainstream media.”
8. Do ANY of you object to a taxpayer asking a simple question of their public officials? If so, perhaps you are the ones who don’t understand America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.