Posted on 01/05/2008 3:08:50 PM PST by NYer
LA GRANGE, Ky. -- A father is in a courtroom battle, trying to keep his son from attending a Catholic high school.
The parents involved in this case are divorced. David Ryan, the father, is an atheist. The mother is a Roman Catholic. Their son, who is in the eighth grade, attends a Catholic school in Oldham County.
“This is something where it can't be both ways,” said Ryan’s attorney, Edwin Kagin. “We think the constitution wins.”
According to Kagin, when Ryan and his wife got divorced, a judge ordered their son continue attending a Catholic school.
But Ryan is an atheist and wants his son to attend a public high school next year, so Friday, he took the issue in front of a judge in an Oldham County courtroom.
“David feels the orientation and the indoctrination of the church school is harmful to his child,” Kagin said.
According to court documents, Ryan believes if his son continues to attend a religious school, it will attempt to indoctrinate his son into a belief system that he as a parent rejects.
“A view that the world operates in conformity with supernatural forces and not with natural laws,” Kagin said.
Ryan's attorney said this case may just be about one kid and where he goes to school, but there's a much bigger issue at hand.
“The issue really does become one of what does church-state separation mean?” he asked.
Kagin said part of Kentucky’s constitution reads, "Nor shall any man be compelled to send his child to any school to which he may be conscientiously opposed."
Kagin said going by the law, the judge's decision should be easy, but he doesn't know how much the judge will consider Ryan’s son's wishes on the matter.
“My client strongly feels that the best interest of the child is served by teaching the child the courts, as well as all citizens, must obey the law and the constitution under which we live,” he said.
Tragic!
The kid continues where he has been going.
ML/NJ
He's just jerking his ex around, and seeking publicity at the same time.
And really teaching his kid a lesson . . . not the one he thinks he is though.
The child got this far without objection by the father. Too late!
Many Protestants send their kids to Catholic schools without fearing they will be "indoctrinated" into a religion they don't agree with. I know many Jewish kids attended my school, which had daily chapel services which featured Christian hymns and New Testament readings.
Kagin said part of Kentucky’s constitution reads, "Nor shall any man be compelled to send his child to any school to which he may be conscientiously opposed."
I think "man" here really means "person." The mother has rights too.
The father is not neutral in this issue of “god”. He is atheist/antitheist. His religion is the no god god.
If he is going to defer to the state, the state can make no religion (or lack thereof) the default religion.
They can neither establish NOR OPPOSE.
CHILD ABUSE!!! “Better to have not been born than lead a child astray”...or something like that.
Tragic for the boy; stupid of the father. Kids are impressionable. The child has been turned into a ping pong ball, through no fault of his own. That was my point.
Man can mean "male human being," or it can mean "human being," as in "a man cannot live by bread alone," or "man is an intelligent being." Anyway, a law which gave rights to men but not women would probably be overturned or disregarded in courts today. Lots of FReepers could probably tell you that divorce courts certainly do not favor men over women, as a rule!
man beats exwife with child. story at 11.
Nice Dad...not only has this divorce ripped apart a family and affected this poor boy - now “Dad” wants to turn the poor kids life upside down again and destroy another aspect of his life that he is used to..nice going pops!
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“A view that the world operates in conformity with supernatural forces and not with natural laws,”Horsepuckey! The Church teaches BOTH Natural Law and Supernatural Law and they are complimentary!
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As a Constitutionalist, I have to ask how a judge can order a child attend any private school. He can rule the custodial parent make the choice or he can rule the child must be schooled, but I don’t see where he has the authority to specify the school himself unless the child has been remanded to a particular correctional facility. Any Constitutionalists with law backgrounds who will explain this to me?
I can’t say how things work in KY, but in TX, the sole managing conservator gets to decide most everything about the child. The temporary conservator doesn’t get much say.
It didn’t sound like the Dad has custody. I think he is just being a jerk. Also, in TX, the judges I have seen where a child over 11 is involved, will actually ask the child what they want.
I picked upo on this remark by the attorney: He says that the school teaches”
A view that the world operates in conformity with supernatural forces and not with natural laws,”
Not if it’s a Catholic school. If he is reflecting the father’s thinking, then the father is ignorant. More likely the attorney is ignorant and can’t talk intelligently about the matter. But, hey, he gets paid even if he spouts nonsense!
Spoken like any good Nazi. Recall that some of the most egregious laws of the Third Reich were "legal" and "constitutional." They just weren't moral.
The custodial parent should get to pick the school. The judge should throw him out of court and sanction his lawyer.
Um, the dad doesn’t even LIVE with the kid. What a jerk!
My ex husband did the same thing. I suspect this guy became an atheist when the tuition bill came in the mail.
This is something where it can’t be both ways,” said Ryan’s attorney, Edwin Kagin. “We think the constitution wins.”
I see no constitutional question at issue here. The mom is custodial parent and she certainly has every right to decide what school her son attends. Dad objection only has merit if it could be proven the school was academically harmful to the child. So tough tootsie bud.
Going to a public school never turned anybody into an atheist, though it's not a superior education.
And many an atheist was educated at religious schools.
I wonder if he was an atheist when she married him. Does the Catholic Church permit marriages to athiests?
If he was paying the tuition when he was married to the mother, he doesn’t have much ground to stand on. He made the decision to marry a Catholic woman. If he was so adamant about a traditional atheist upbringing, he should have made better decisions.
It depends on how his ruling was written.
The Mother probably suspected that the ex- might try this so she could have had the diviroce decree witten that their son must continue in the same school.
If the Father wqas already paying part or most of the tab then that would have been in the decree as well.
Even if the husband agreed to it originally and lost his faith and his senses later, I still don't see any wiggle room. I understand in family court children's wishes are often taken into consideration, but aside from being entitled to a safe and healthy living environment, children don't have a lot of rights under the law.
I’d like to know what happened at the wedding. If I remember correctly, in cases of mixed-marriages if the Church was to perform the solemnities then she requested that the non-Catholic had to agree that any children be raised as Catholics - this may now be out of date (unfortunately).
Catholics are permitted to marry non-Catholics but in order to be married in the Church, the non-Catholic must agree to raise their children as Catholics. If this couple was married in the Church, then the ex-husband would have had to make that promise in order for the marriage to take place and he is now breaking that promise. But if they married outside the Church, he would not have made that promise. At any rate, as long as the mother is the custodial parent, she has the authority to send their son to the school of her choosing.
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