Posted on 05/29/2003 7:29:15 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Student sues to re-insert 'God' in song Winnebago County school cites separation of church, state By JESSICA McBRIDE jmcbride@journalsentinel.com Last Updated: May 29, 2003 When Winneconne High School senior Rachel Honer revealed she planned to sing a religious song at next month's graduation ceremonies, school administrators ordered her to use the words He, Him and His instead of three mentions of God in the lyrics.
Otherwise, she could not sing "He's Always Been Faithful," by Christian recording artist Sara Groves, at commencement June 8.
But Honer believed she would be a "liar and a hypocrite" to sing an edited version. So she did some research on freedom of religion and found the Rutherford Institute, a non-profit civil liberties organization based in Virginia, which last week filed a complaint on her behalf with the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.
The lawsuit, now assigned to the court's Green Bay division, contends that the school district violated Honer's constitutional rights to equal protection, free speech and free expression of religion. It seeks an injunction that thedistrict "cease its discriminatory and unconstitutional policy or practice of censoring students from expressing their religious beliefs in their speeches, songs or performances at graduation exercises."
Debra Honer said Wednesday she agreed with her daughter that they couldn't ignore the incident at the Winnebago County public school.
"I am incredibly proud that she has taken a stand and not backed down. God is number one in her life, so how could she talk about anything else?"
Honer, 18, could not be reached for comment because she is training for volunteer work at a Christian summer camp, her mother said.
According to the lawsuit, Winneconne High School Principal Jim Smasal told Honer that allowing references to God would violate the separation of church and state and could be offensive to people attending the graduation.
District Superintendent Robert Reinke backed the principal, according to the complaint.
Reinke said Wednesday that neither he nor Smasal, both of whom are named as defendants in the case, would comment on pending litigation.
Tony Renner, the attorney representing the district, said case law favors its position.
"In this case, the district's actions are necessary to avoid the appearance of state sponsorship of religion that would violate the law," Renner said.
Renner said the district hopes to work out a compromise.
"This is not some kind of illegal censorship," concurred the Rev. Barry Lynn, the executive director of a Washington D.C.-based organization that defends separation of church and state cases across the country, but is not involved in Honer's case.
"This is simply a school district understanding that a graduation is a secular event, not a religious revival service."
But Marquette University law professor and former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Janine Geske characterized that area of the law as "murky."
"I think it's clear that a public school cannot have a policy that promotes prayer or has it as a regular policy," Geske said.
But she said federal district and appellate courts are "all over the board on the issue when a student decides on his or her own that they want to refer to God. It's a tough issue."
John W. Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, called the Winnecone district's actions "pure outright censorship of a certain kind of speech they (school officials) don't like."
"We see a lot of this kind of stuff where, for some strange reason, some person in the school system makes a bureaucratic decision that is on its face patently ridiculous."
Ideally, Whitehead said, a federal judge would order the school district to allow Honer to sing the Groves song.
According to the complaint, a committee that included faculty had authority to select students to perform at graduation, based on non-religious criteria such as students' character and academic standing.
Honer asked to be considered and said she wanted to sing instead of speak. The principal told Honer she could sing, and she was chosen by the committee.
The committee requested the lyrics of the song Honer intended to sing. On May 7, Smasal informed her the song was unacceptable without the suggested changes.
If this girl is allowed to sing the song, it'd be even more beautiful if she sings it according to its original meaning, and not emphasize "God" just to rub it in the faces of those who tried to keep her down. That "politicalization" of the song is just what the enemy would like to see....
Perhaps it's time to start counting how many are OFFENDED on both side of these issues. I just can t help but wonder how we got to this point as a society, where tossing Christians to the lawyers(instead of lions) is the favorite passtime of the liberal lefties like the ACLU..
They're more than happy to defend an IDIOT woman who wants a drivers license photo wearing her burka, it's her "right", then they attack Christmas as a part of their annual ritual of weeding America from this "ridiculous" obsession with "religion". The founding fathers would be embarrassed for sure.
I'll bet if she wanted to sing a "rap" song full of NI**ER, WH*RE, B*TCH, and F**K it would have been her right to "free speech".
Perhaps if they allowed the students to sing the National Anthem, once and a while, they would realize how stupid this ruling is.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
MEGA-DITTOS!
So God is a Male! I knew it!!!
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