California school teacher Steven Williams has filed suit in Federal Court over the banning from his classroom of the Declaration of Independance, due to it's religious content.
The court documents are available for you to view courtesy of The Smoking Gun.
In the below federal discrimination lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Steven Williams contends that brass at Cupertino's Stevens Creek School have recently rejected his use of "curriculum-related handouts" like the Declaration, various state constitutions, George Washington's journal, John Adams's diary, and writings by William Penn. Williams alleges that the San Francisco-area school's principal, Patricia Vidmar, banned the use of these handouts because "many original source documents from the founding era contain references to God and Christianity." Williams alleges that Vidmar cracked down on his lesson plans in May, shortly after he distributed an example of a presidential proclamation. The document he chose was one issued by President George W. Bush dealing with a National Day of Prayer.Williams "understands and admits that he is not permitted to 'proselytize' or seek to convert his students to Christian beliefs during instructional time."
But to insist that Williams not use historic documents key in the formation and development of this nation is unconscionable. So because of "political correctness" we are supposed to ignore our nation's history?
Just damn.
Posted by mhking at November 27, 2004 11:08 AMI see no problem here as the principal is interpreting the free speech portion of the 1st Admendment much in the same manner as the US Supreme Court interprets the religion clause.
Both are idiots.
Posted by: Neo at November 27, 2004 05:34 PMIf this makes it to the 9th Circuit, he'll lose. Of course, it might go to the SCOTUS and be over-turned, but any teacher who would buck the admin for that long might as well decide on finding a new vocation.
Posted by: skh at November 27, 2004 05:54 PMthats truly pathetic and PC gone mad. Yes keep christianity and Islam etc out of the state and out of the classroom, RE excepted but to refuse to provide historical information on America's history because non christians (and i am a non christian) might be offended is stupid.
If for no other reason than not understanding history always results in repeating its mistakes.
Posted by: young-white-and-liberal at November 29, 2004 08:36 AMThis is absurd, and i don't have words, fortunately the Religious Reich found plenty and i'll leave the foaming to them...
Posted by: theco at November 30, 2004 12:14 AMYes, there were a lot of "Christian" people involoved when this country was founded. Primarily because they fled so they could practice their religion without persecution. BUT, the founding documents of our country were not based on "Christian" principals but on Moral Law that must exist to have an orderly society. Without a moral law, we have anarchy.
I would highly recommend reading the book by Dr. Norman Geisler & Frank Turek titled "Legislating Morality". Some people say we can't do that, but in fact, it enter into every piece of Legislation that is enacted in this great country. Recommended reading whether you are a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, et al.....
Posted by: Ron Sand at December 1, 2004 10:43 PMThe Smoking Gun did not post the handouts that were restricted. A list and a narrative description are here:
http://entroposcope.blogspot.com/2004/12/stevens-creek-school-debacle.html
It turns out that the so-loved 'Washington's Prayer Journal' is in fact a 19th century forgery.
At least some of the material is quite tendentious AND not particularly suitable for 5th grader readers.
Posted by: Liz Ditz at December 7, 2004 02:46 AM