Patti Puma, a parent with four children in the school district, approached Deputy Superintendent Dr. Thomas Neveldine about this new restriction. Dr. Neveldine told her that Santa Claus was no longer allowed on campus because he originated from the story about St. Nicholas. Thus, according to the Deputy Superintendent, nothing with any hint of Christianity is permissible to celebrate Christmas, even if the symbol has a decidedly secular meaning today.

On Monday, concerned parents and citizens will address the local school board. A growing group of parents are fighting against these ridiculous restrictions. A petition has been started that requests the return of Christmas celebrations. Dr. Neveldine can be reached by calling 315-434-3006.

Liberty Counsel has joined with Christian Educators Association International in the seventh annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign, a campaign that is designed to educate and, if necessary, litigate to make sure religious viewpoints regarding Christmas are not censored. Liberty Counsel has legal memos that address the law regarding this issue on its website at www.LC.org. Liberty Counsel also has its “Naughty & Nice” list, which overviews retailers that acknowledge Christmas and those that do not.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Perhaps educators ought to check out the name of the holiday they enjoy on December 25. Wouldn’t someone with a little common sense understand its okay to celebrate both the secular and religious aspects of Christmas? Censoring only the religious viewpoint of Christmas, or pretending like Christmas does not exist, reveals hostility toward religion, which the Constitution forbids.”

Please pray that CEAI is successful in their court battle against the ACLU.

This Wednesday is See You at the Pole. Be sure to check out your local school and join them for prayer at their flag pole before school. Students around the country will be praying for their schools. Educators are permitted to participate as long it is not during the contracted hours. This is a perfect time for churches and communities to join together to lift up our schools in prayer.

See you at the Pole!

Battle for Religious Freedom Continues in Florida Schools

“Another effort of the ACLU to sanitize public schools of religious expression has failed”, says Finn Laursen, Executive Director of Christian Educators Association International.
U. S. Judge Casey Rodgers found Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman not guilty of criminal contempt Thursday , 9/17/09, after evidence failed to prove they willfully violated a temporary injunction that prohibited the promotion of religion in Santa Rosa County schools.
This criminal contempt issue began when the ACLU asked that Lay and Freeman be held in contempt for offering a prayer over a meal at a luncheon where they honored donors to the Athletic Field House Project.
Last month in the same court room Judge Rogers told Santa Rosa County School District employee and CEAI member Michele Winkler she would not be held in civil contempt for asking her husband to pray over a meal at a banquet off school grounds.
But the battle in Santa Rosa is not yet over.
On behalf of CEAI, Liberty Counsel had filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed last school year by the ACLU against the Santa Rosa County School District. The ACLU charged that some teachers and administrators were actively endorsing religion. The school district attempted to settle the suit by joining with the ACLU in a consent decree that essentially bans all employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities, whether before, during, or after school hours.
In an effort to seek relief from the consent decree CEAI was in front of Judge Rogers just two weeks ago. The ACLU and district attorneys tried to block our intervention, but the judge has kept the case alive and we are currently waiting for another court date to argue the unconstitutionality of the consent decree. Liberty Counsel will argue the case to give us a voice in this matter; a voice calling for the freedoms of the First Amendment to be restored!
 

(Finn Laursen is the Executive Director of CEAI, est. 1953.
To interview Finn Laursen contact Doreen at 888-798-1124 or info@ceai.org)

Liberty Counsel reports that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of two Wisconsin children who were strip-searched by a state social worker at a private Christian school. In Michael C. v. Gresbach, the appeals court panel unanimously ruled that the social worker, Dana Gresbach, violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the children to be free from an unreasonable search.

The eight-year-old boy, his nine-year-old sister and their parents are represented by Liberty Counsel and a Wisconsin attorney

The court stated that “it is a violation of a child’s constitutional rights to conduct a search of a child at a private school without a warrant or probable cause, consent, or exigent circumstances.” The court held the social worker personally responsible for violating the students’ rights, because the law in this area is so clear that she should have known her actions were unconstitutional. What are your thoughts about this strip searching educator?

According to Fox News, A South Carolina high school principal said he’ll resign from his post after the district approved an organization for gay students that conflicts with his religious beliefs.
Eddie Walker, the principal of Irmo High School in Columbia, S.C., announced his intention to step down to faculty and students on Wednesday, saying he’ll end his tenure following the 2008-09 school year. The decision, outlined in a letter to Lexington-Richland School District 5 officials, said the reason was the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance Club for students.
“Allowing the formation of this club on our campus conflicts with my professional beliefs and religious convictions,” Walker wrote in the letter, obtained by FOX affiliate WACH-TV.Do you think Principal Walker made a good decision for resigning because of the formation of the gay club?

Professor Albert Harris, who has taught at UNC for 35 years, said he has made the same comment many times in order to spark discussion. Harris told students that aborting a Down syndrome baby is the moral thing to do. However, he would not abort his own disabled child, he told Raleigh’s News & Observer.

I am outraged that a teacher is permitted to teach and promote such a horrible position on abortion. This professor’s comments reflect the thinkings of Adolf Hitler during World War II. It was Hitler that ordered the deaths of all handicapped people. The University of North Carolina should require this professor to step down for his predjudicial and inflammatory comments.

“The removal of it will be nothing short of the infringement on my deeply held religious beliefs,” he said at a rally Wednesday where 100 people gathered to show their support.

I think that the Mount Vernon Middle School made a terrible legal blunder when it required this Ohio teacher to remove his Bible from his desk. I find it deplorable that a public school would prevent a teacher from placing the best selling book of all time on a teacher’s desk. This is a clear violation of the religious rights of this teacher. Visit the legal corner of our website to download a free chapter of Attorney Matt Staver’s book on religious rights in school.