Educate, Agitate, Organize!
The ACLU is alive and well as it continues to promote and spread its’ message of religious intolerance and bigotry. Within recent days, we have seen the American Civil Liberties Union continue to target students and schools through lawsuits, propaganda, and intimidation.
LAWSUITS….
One of the most highly publicized cases occurred in East Texas when cheerleaders were banned from creating football banners using Bible verses. District Judge Steve Thomas rightly ruled that the ban violated their free speech rights and issued an injunction until June 2013, allowing the “Bible Banners” to be used. Interestingly, it wasn’t Texans but rather a Wisconsin-based group that brought the case to the attention of the ACLU.
PROPAGANDA…
“EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE” are the words being used by the American Civil Liberties Union to promote a Know Your Rights workshop for Desoto County (Mississippi) School district students and parents on November 17th.
As stated on the ACLU website:
“Students will learn how to be their own advocates in schools and communities. ALL students, regardless of race, nationality, immigration status, sexual orientation, disabilities, and religious beliefs are entitled to all rights under the constitution. MS Students deserve dignity, respect, and equality in their schools and communities.
Workshop includes:
–Students’ Rights and Responsibilities when Facing a Suspension
-Students’ Rights when encountering Police in School and in Community
-Students’ Rights for Youth with a Disability or Special Needs
-Resources to get help when your rights have been violated
AND MUCH MORE!
Zero Tolerance Policies are criminalizing our youth for minor incidents and “normal behavior” in school. These policies indirectly push students towards the criminal justice system by excluding them from school through detention, suspension, expulsion, and high stakes testing requirements.
In July 2012, nearly 700 students came together to begin forming the MS Student Bill of Rights. Students are mobilizing across the state to EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE! We are ready to take our place at the decision making tables that concern our well being and our future!”
(By the way, food and refreshments will be served.)
INTIMIDATION…
That invitation comes on the heels of a letter sent by the ACLU to Lincoln School District and West Lincoln Attendance Center on October 17th, demanding the principal, coaches and teachers end their widespread practices of religious proselytizing.
Here is an excerpt from the letter :
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION of MISSISSIPPI
October 17, 2012
VIA FAX AND FIRST CLASS MAIL Mr. Terry M. Brister, Superintendent Lincoln County School District
Post Office Box 826
Brookhaven, Mississippi 39601-0826 Fax: (60 I) 833-3030
Re: School-Sponsored Religious Activity at West Lincoln Attendance Center
Dear Superintendent Brister:
We write to express our deep concern regarding West Lincoln Attendance Center’s pervasive policy and practice of incorporating prayer and other religious messages into myriad school events and activities. This official practice violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the government from promoting religious beliefs or exercise.
The federal courts “have been particularly vigilant in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause” in the public-school context,I because “there are heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools.,,2 Accordingly, public schools may not include official prayer or other religious exercise and messages in school events and activities]
Despite these longstanding and well-settled principles of law, the ACLU of Mississippi has received information that West Lincoln students, faculty, and staff are routinely subjected to official prayer at numerous school events, including student awards ceremonies and banquets, school-day assemblies, teacher meetings, holiday celebrations, sporting events, and graduation ceremonies. For example, we understand that as recently as this month, school officials have opened football games with prayer. Last month, for instance, Principal Case participated in a prayer at the school’s homecoming pep rally. At many of these events, Principal Jason Case leads the prayer himself and, in his capacity as the coach for the cross-country team, he regularly leads students in pre-practice prayer.
Principal Case is well aware that these practices are unlawful but willfully continues to flout the Constitution….”
Does anyone see the irony in a workshop conducted to teach students how to exercise their rights against school authority and discipline for enforcing a zero-tolerance stance- while threatening the leadership of a school recognized as a “Blue Ribbon School” for encouraging values and character within its’ students?
Let’s call it what it is. The ACLU is actively working to brainwash the minds of students by promoting, teaching, and encouraging student-led rebellion against any authority.
Need a solution for those who find the ACLU inhibiting our constitutional rights instead of protecting them? Take a page from their own book.
Would the ACLU, with all the vast resources and lawyers they have available, be able to actively sue every public school for creating “Biblical Banners” if they did so on one designated night? Would the ACLU be as effective in suing public school officials if every school ignored their threatening letters? What if every parent wised up and prevented the ACLU from using propaganda techniques against their children? It can be done if we…
Educate, Agitate, Organize!
