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Young special-needs child suspended for drawing Jesus
Washington Times ^ | 12/15/2009 | Victor Morton

Posted on 12/15/2009 1:59:50 PM PST by markomalley

An 8-year-old special-needs child was suspended from school and forced to undergo psychiatric counseling over a picture he drew of Jesus Christ dead on the cross for a Christmas assignment.

School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture "violated the code of violence in the school handbook," said Toni Saunders, an educational consultant on special-needs children with the Associated Advocacy Center who is working with the boy's family.

"I couldn't believe what they were telling me," the boy's father, Chester Johnson, who also works for the school system as a substitute custodian, told The Washington Times on Tuesday. "I asked her, 'Are you fooling around?'"

Mr. Johnson said his son, who is a slow reader and has "a little speech problem," now wants to transfer schools. Mr. Johnson requested that his son not be named.

"I couldn't believe it," Ms. Saunders added, referring to the suspension. "This is a very religious family. They felt violated because of this."

The fracas began Thanksgiving night, when the boy was taken to see a Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Mass. The next week, on Dec. 2, the boy's teacher at Lowell M. Maxham Elementary School asked all the students to draw something that reminded them of Christmas, and the pupil drew a crucifix like the one he had seen at the display.

The boy then was taken to the principal's office and asked why he drew this image.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: christianstudents; cross; discipline; liberalpsychos; moralabsolutes; prolife; psychoticliberalism; zerotolerance
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To: Sleeping Freeper
School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture "violated the code of violence in the school handbook," ...

Would that be the "school handbook" written by those very same "school officials," by any chance?

21 posted on 12/15/2009 2:31:47 PM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: markomalley
I think the Scrooges at Lowell M. Maxham Elementary School needs some Christmas Cards sent to them, to get them in the Christmas Spirit!!
22 posted on 12/15/2009 2:38:32 PM PST by skully (Islamofascists love death more then life, PC cowards love diversity more then life. We're so F'd!!!)
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To: markomalley
According to GreatSchools.net this district has a rating of 5 stars out of 10. In English; completely average. So the School Board aren't accomplishing a whole lot. And this moronic suspension falls complexity back on the School Board, which explains their average rating.

And this school has a rating (by parents and ex-students), of 6 out of 10, slightly above average. Now the boy CAN transfer to another school but big deal, its the same School Board full of asshats. THEY need psychiatric counseling.

Private School is the boy's only escape from these nuts.

23 posted on 12/15/2009 2:39:35 PM PST by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: Sleeping Freeper

No.

More like the ones who were into “lions” and “stadiums”.


24 posted on 12/15/2009 2:40:54 PM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: mvpel
School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture “violated the code of violence in the school handbook,” ...

So then they must not teach the violent mathematical operation known as addition at this school.... I'm guessing they consider the + sign to be a violent image also??

25 posted on 12/15/2009 2:42:59 PM PST by skully (Islamofascists love death more then life, PC cowards love diversity more then life. We're so F'd!!!)
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To: markomalley

Just when you think that the Leftist “Progressive” cretins couldn’t possibly make bigger jackasses of themselves, you read something like this.


26 posted on 12/15/2009 2:43:37 PM PST by Desron13
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To: wolfcreek

“Well, he did have the wrong holiday.”


Since Jesus Christ was born to die for the sins of the world, the boy was correct.

“Thou shalt call his name Jesus (at His birth) for he sahll save his people from their sins (on the Cross).

Were it not for the necessity of the Cross, the birth would not have been neceaasry.


27 posted on 12/15/2009 2:45:19 PM PST by John Leland 1789 (But then, I'm accused of just being a troll, so . . . .)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
The father said the teacher became upset when his son said he drew himself on the cross.

The child was correct then, as he is the one being 'crucified' now.

28 posted on 12/15/2009 2:46:24 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: markomalley
"The boy then was taken to the principal's office and asked why he drew this image."
 
Well, Mr./Ms./Gender Challenged/Comrade Administrator - see, it's because I felt like using my "MIND WHICH ALMIGHTY GOD HATH CREATED FREE"to illustrate my personal, individual belief that, through Christ, "GOD WHO GAVE US LIFE GAVE US LIBERTY".
 
Or maybe just because, like Thomas Jefferson, "I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITY TO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN".
 
Sort of like the guy I drew in the picture.
 
Does that clear it up?
 
 

29 posted on 12/15/2009 2:47:09 PM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: markomalley

this liberal crap makes me want to vomit


30 posted on 12/15/2009 2:48:08 PM PST by rightbrained
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To: markomalley

Link to picture and more info. here:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/christ-cross-childs-drawing/story?id=9344273


31 posted on 12/15/2009 2:50:11 PM PST by Sleeping Freeper
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To: markomalley; All

TIME FOR ACTION:

PRINCIPAL:
RCouet@tauntonschools.org
508-821-1265

Superintendent:
jhackett@tauntonschools.org
508-821-1201

Couldn’t quite figure out what class this happened in, so not listing teacher contacts. However, there are only 20 staffers listed for this tiny school. There are only 2 teachers it could be unless this happened in his speech therapy class.

Good news though, the mayor is calling for an immediate apology.


32 posted on 12/15/2009 2:50:49 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
The father said the teacher became upset when his son said he drew himself on the cross.

I'd take that with a grain of salt. It's not mentioned anywhere other than the Providence Journal article that the boy actually described the picture as himself on the cross. The only related thing I've seen is a mention of the boy having written his name on the picture, and it seems like that fact would be a source of potential confusion for a dimwitted journalist taking sketchy notes over the phone.

33 posted on 12/15/2009 2:50:58 PM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: CodeToad
>>censorship for anything they don’t believe
>>in is what liberals practice.



"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITY TO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN"
--Thomas Jefferson

34 posted on 12/15/2009 2:51:36 PM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: wolfcreek; All

Actually, a Cross is quite appropriate.

People focus on the birth, but the whole point of the birth is it allowed for the death and Resurrection.

To celebrate the birth in isolation misses the whole point.

I have seen a decent number of crosses at Christmas and find them perfectly appropriate.

Good point about whether he was dead or not, however.


35 posted on 12/15/2009 2:53:09 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: skully
School officials in Taunton, Mass., said the picture “violated the code of violence in the school handbook,” ...

So, what happens to children who wear a crucifix?

36 posted on 12/15/2009 2:53:35 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
From the ABC article:

According to Saunders, school officials began to quiz the boy about the meaning of the Xs on the eyes and about his understanding of death. At one point the boy said he was actually showing himself on a cross. They called his father.

So the boy only said that it was himself on the cross after they dragged him to the principal's office and worked him over for a little while, at which point they took that one statement and ran with it.

You certainly can't blame a special-needs eight-year-old for getting a a little flustered and misspeaking in a high-stress situation like that. Put yourself in the kid's shoes and imagine you're a suspect in a robbery you didn't commit and the police are peppering you with questions in an interrogation room. If you're making the mistake of answering their questions as best you can, are you going to say exactly what you meant to say in exactly the way you meant to say it the entire time in that situation?

37 posted on 12/15/2009 2:57:21 PM PST by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: markomalley

This happened in Massachusetts.

Where Kevin Jennings used to work.

Where FISTING is taught as a required subject.


38 posted on 12/15/2009 2:59:54 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
The father said the teacher became upset when his son said he drew himself on the cross.

Assuming that that is true I still don't see the problem. A Christian child identifying with Christ's suffering on the cross in a drawing sounds rather normal and healthy to me.

39 posted on 12/15/2009 3:03:38 PM PST by TigersEye (Sarah Palin 2010 - We Can't Afford To Wait)
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To: CodeToad
Tolerance is what they preach, censorship for anything they don’t believe in is what liberals practice.

Had the child drawn a picture of an alcoholic atheist homeless bum wearing a Santa Claus suit, working in a Jewish owned Retail Department Store, the teacher would not even have flinched.

40 posted on 12/15/2009 3:05:34 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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