FLUSHING PUBLIC SCHOOL DISCRIMINATES AGAINST CHRISTIANS

Catholic League ^ | 12-3-01

[Notwithstanding]

December 3, 2001

FLUSHING PUBLIC SCHOOL DISCRIMINATES AGAINST CHRISTIANS

The principal of The Thomas Jefferson Magnet School of Humanities in Flushing, New York, Dr. Fran Levy, has issued a memo to teachers encouraging them to bring to school religious symbols that represent the Muslim, Kawanza and Jewish religions. (Kawanza, however, is not a religion.) No mention of Christianity was made. Indeed, when a Christmas tree was put up in the school, Dr. Levy ordered it taken down because it was too large; she said it was too big when compared with the menorah and crescent and star.

Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:

“Dr. Levy has issued a memo that is mind-boggling. She has set her school up for a lawsuit. It would be hard to find a more classic demonstration of discrimination against Christians in a public school anywhere in the nation.

“The Catholic League will not be appeased if Dr. Levy decides to put back the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is a secular symbol. If she is going to allow religious symbols such as a menorah and crescent and star, then she must permit the display of a nativity scene. Either that or ban all religious symbols. But we will not tolerate a discriminatory policy and that is why we will use all our resources to correct this injustice.”

[ArGee]

The Christmas tree is a secular symbol.

At least someone got that detail correct. But, even though it is a secular symbol it is a symbol of Christmas, which is the Christian holiday.

I think this principal has a great idea - allowing all the religions. They should also talk about where each of the holidays came from and why and what impact each of the groups (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) have had on history and civilization.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Ping.

[AppyPappy]

No way. That would be real diversity. We can't have that.

[RnMomof7]

“The Catholic League will not be appeased if Dr. Levy decides to put back the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is a secular symbol. If she is going to allow religious symbols such as a menorah and crescent and star, then she must permit the display of a nativity scene. Either that or ban all religious symbols. But we will not tolerate a discriminatory policy and that is why we will use all our resources to correct this injustice.”

I think He's got her ! LOL...

So who do we write?

[gumbo]

This is on the heels of NYC Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's issuing a policy setting aside special rooms for Muslim students to pray.

(Chancellor Levy later rescinded the policy after the NY Post exposed this special "accommodation" made for Muslim students, where accommodations for Christian or Jewish would never be permitted by the NYC public schools! Several schools continue to permit special treatment for Muslims, however.)

[LarryLied]

PS 22

Welcome to

THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL

PS 22

School of the Humanities

153-01 Sanford Avenue
Flushing, NY 11355
(718) 762-4141
Fax (718) 358-1260

Dr. Fran Levy, Principal

School Report Card (pdf)

Dear Parents and Family,

Our staff is dedicated and nurturing of children. We are emphasizing the use of child-centered, activity-based, thematic whole-language instruction and arts education. As the School of the Humanities, our focus is on multi-cultural education, conflict resolution and community service; our aim is to create, collaborate, and discover through multi-media learning. We have established collaborative relationships with local universities, Flushing Council of the Arts, Carnegie Hall, and TADA Theater Arts. Each helps us provide a more meaningful academic program for all of our children.

Sunday, September 23, 2001

[RnMomof7]

I would love to see those muslim kids forced to quote from the quran about how to treat Jews and Christians.."They are friends of each other" "kill the infidels"

That could open the eyes of some of the kids

[ArGee]

No way. That would be real diversity. We can't have that.

Well, you know, there's diversity and diversity. One version of diversity allows everyone to present their position and allows those listening to evaluate that position in an effort to determine if it is a valid (read True) position or not.

But the other version says that everything is true (except the assertion that not everything is true - that's false - but everything else is true) and diversity means recognizing the other opinions. You don't have to have the decency to actually pay attention to the position. You just have to tolerate it.

And remember, tolerating is what you do with something you hate but have decided not to attack. Remember when your mom forced you to tolerate your younger brother?

Shalom.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

"Our staff is dedicated and nurturing of children. We are emphasizing the use of child-centered, activity-based, thematic whole-language instruction and arts education. At the School of the Humanities, our focus is on multi-cultural education, conflict resolution and community service; our aim is to create, collaborate, and discover through multi-media learning."

At first I thought this was a parody of liberal jargon. But apparently it's for real!

[tallhappy]

It's sad that this is a dog bites man story in the current times, not a man bites dog one.

[Mr. Bungle]

There are far too many hyphenated terms in that statement for it to have any meaning whatsoever.

[Notwithstanding]

Are these two Levy's related?

[stainlessbanner]

This is from the school's webpage:

We must emphasize:
Building self-esteem in all children
Students as members of a caring community
Improving inter-cultural relations
Community service
Concern for school and community environments

Interesting there is nothing about learning that they emphasize. What happened to getting an education?

[Aquinasfan]

Under the leadership of Donohue, the Catholic League is bringing this snivelling, cowardly, anti-Christian/Catholic war above ground and into the daylight. Watch the cockroaches run.

Has anyone seen the TV ads for the Catholic League? They're great.

[I still care]

Shaun Hannity always picks up this kind of stuff.

[LarryLied]

At first I thought this was a parody of liberal jargon.

Amazing itself it? The Fran Levy's of the world think we are primitives. The world outside their city is inhabited by savage Christians beating drums and trying to destroy their culture

[redbaiter]

Clearly the Catholic League doesn't get it. OK, here is the rule:

Any religion is OK in school, as long as it isn't Christianity.

Corollary: Prayer in school is OK, as long as it isn't Christians doing the praying.

[I still care]

Your comment about showing the impact of all religions is excellent. One of the main problems that I see in secular education is there is such a fanatical revision of history to make sure there is no mention of christianity, never mind if it is important to the question at hand. For instance, I homeschool, and my girlfriend does also. We compared her secular text (McGraw Hill) to mine (Abeka). What an eyeopener!

The secular text - (This is not an exact quote, but similar) "The Mayflower Compact was an important agreement in self government. It was signed by all the male pilgrims, but females did not sign. At that time women did not have the right to participate in government." -That was the complete mention of the Mayflower Compact. What a distorted view! The Abeka text not only described it, but quoted the whole thing (only a paragraph or two), and spoke about how important self government was. The secular text could not do that because they could not mention the name of God. In other words, their self censorship of religion actually led them to distort history because they could not mention it.

I am also always disturbed the way secular texts totally skip over Hebrew history, when they have a well researched historical book that documents much, and so much of our culture is based on their history. (God forbid, it is the bible!) We study Egyptians, Mesopotamia, China, Africa, Muslim, Greece, and Rome, but NEVER Israeli history - that violates political correctness. To me, the purposeful distortion of history is the great tragedy of the false doctrine of the separation of church and state.

[philosofy123]

The problem with all the stupid Christians who inhabit this country is that they think there is an equal treatment! They realy need to move to a Christian country to get equality.