William Bragg
Liberal Tool
Posted on 11/24/2004 1:23:51 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.
Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.
"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.
"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."
Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment.
Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.
Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.
Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."
"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.
This is one of the most horrific acts of discrimination I have ever witnessed. I will be very interested in the media reaction to this disgraceful event. The far left truly does believe that religion is evil, there is no hiding that fact.
To ban students from the truth - that the founders of this country were religious people- is not only distorting history, it is also discrimination.
These secularists hide behind claims that they only want to "make sure that religion is not forced on students" or that they want to "be fair to all students since not all are religious."
Maybe that is how the secularists began but now they are an anti-Judeo-Christianity group with a hate of any one who claims to be religious. They do not want equality, nor do they do they want fairness. The only thing the far-left "secularists" want is the destruction of religion.
To destroy religion, the secularists will do everything from changing history to firing people who tell the truth. (If the truth has any mention of religion)
I hope that this school is prosecuted and that this teacher receives the compensation he deserves for having the courage to tell the truth. I am saddened however that a teacher needs courage to tell the truth.
Ah, here it is...The Alliance Defence Fund.
http://www.texaspanhandleplains.com/newspaper/print.php?sid=111
bump
FYI Ping
"And the liberals are afraid of us???"
I listen to them on KGO out of San Francisco. I've never seen so many paranoids over religion in my life. We get attacked by radical Islam and the lefties become scared of Christians......wow...their thought processes is what scares me the most.
Dang!!! Keep me updated!! ;)
Patricia Vidmar - Principal -- (408) 245-3312
I think Princial Patricia took the phone off the hook. :)
TRT, were are you when we need you?
So9
If the Declaration is unconstitutional then the Constitution is a document authorized by a government which has no basis for existing and therefore the Constitution provides no authority to declare the Declaration 'unconstitutional'... at which point we all fly up our collective arse and disappear with a "thwipp!"
"The tenure system for teachers promotes nothing but incompetent teachers."
Agreed. Look, I am willing to pay top dollar for teachers who are admittedly underpaid for what they do. What I want in return is the same uncertainty that I face in my job on a daily basis - accountability and the possible loss of my job for incompetent or inappropriate behavior. As it is, giving them a raise is throwing $$ down a rathole because there is little to no accountability for utter incompetence.
the numbers above and below work fine!!!
hahaha
---Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.---
Your tax dollars at work. These are the same people that come to you every election asking for more money to "save our schools". Well, now they're going to spend some of it.
I actually got through but the voicemail boxes were full....
Let's try again next week.
My local talk radio guy here in Philly just talked about this article
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