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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Should Bible be allowed for school reading assignment?
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm - by Alan Tu. Filed under: Community.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
Ruling: Not appropriate for show and tell
OPINION OF THE COURT
Plaintiffs, who are mother and son, bring free speech, establishment, and equal protection claims against Defendants, who are school officials and the school district. These claims stem from an elementary school’s restriction of the mother’s effort to read aloud from scripture to students in her son’s kindergarten classroom as part of a curricular “show and tell”- type activity. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Defendants on all claims. We will affirm.
Download a PDF of Court’s ruling
That’s the ruling that came down this week from a federal appeals court in favor of a Pennsylvania school district over the hot topic of Bibles in schools. I became intrigued with this story when I was posting stories on WHYY’s news page this morning and came across Susan Phillip’s story. I wanted to get your take on it.
Was it right or wrong for a suburban Philadelphia school to ban the Bible from being used in this kindergarten lesson? The students were told to bring a book to class to read aloud. allowed to have a parent read from their child’s favorite book. It was part of an assignment called “All About Me.” So, Jaime Reilly brings in the Bible. A principal in Marple Newtown School District said the Bible is not appropriate because it would be “against the law.”
This is a tough one because you don’t want elementary school kids reading things that might be inappropriate. Surely a teacher would be right to stop a child from reading “Bombs for Dummies?” but does the Bible belong in that category? Does anyone remember singing Christmas songs in school? I’ve posted Susan Phillips‘ story below. Read it over and let me know what you think.
Federal appeals court backs PA School District in
Bible ban case
By: Susan Phillips
sphillips@whyy.org
A U.S. court says a kindergartner’s mother cannot read Scripture during a show and tell about the student, even if the Bible is the boy’s favorite book. Monday’s ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is a victory for the Marple Newtown School District in suburban Philadelphia.
The plan to let parents read to a kindergarten class from their child’s favorite book went awry when one mother wanted to read passages from the bible. The principal balked, and was backed up by district officials. So the mother, Donna Kay Busch, sued.
The court says the school’s decision did not violate First Amendment rights given the nonpublic nature of the classroom and the tender age of the children. Cathy Lanctot is a law professor at Villanova University.
Lanctot: I think some of the difficult aspects of the case were it was in a kindergarten setting. And when you have very young children, they might perceive an adult reading excerpts from the bible as the school.
The mother argued the students heard stories related to Passover, Christmas and other religious holidays. The appeals court says there is a “significant difference” between teaching about holidays and reading from Scripture
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Heck, if the assignment is “all about her”, then she would be remiss if she didn’t bring bring the Bible, if that’s substantial part of who she is. I think she should be allowed to bring it — and I’m straight atheist.
If she wants to read it, she should read it, but the other students should not be required to listen or participate, and they should not be quizzed on the substance of it. Any student who believes something different and feels that the weight of “the establishment” behind this girl’s Bible reading is too great to bear should be similarly free to bring in and read the religious text or Atheist polemic of his or her choice.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Oh wait? It’s the *mother* that wants to read it? no no no…. If the SON wants to read it, the SON should be permitted to. If the MOTHER wants to read it, then she should enroll in the class.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I think this is honestly a little ridiculous. However, the court is right that a school is not exactly public ground and has the ability to set its own rules. However, I would want them also to be explicit then about a number of other topics.
For instance, if The God Delusion was your child’s favorite book, I’d want to know that the school would ban that as well. If a child’s favorite book was one of their own holy texts then I’d want to know that they’d exhibit the same vigor in denying the reading of that as well. In fact, perhaps it would be better for the school to be explicit (as it seems this was their _intention_, though unstated) that the book has to be of a certain reading level so that controversial subjects will more than likely not be covered.
Of course, there have been many children’s books written that are [quite](http://www.amazon.com/Heather-Has-Two-Mommies-Anniversary/dp/1555835430/) [controversial](http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Loves-Babies-Darlene-Wibeto/dp/0979880726/) in their content. Would these also be banned from the classroom because of the chance of the school affiliating itself with a controversial subject? Hopefully. At least for consitency’s sake.
Personally, I would want the school to allow reading from the Bible or an Atheist text or a homosexual childrens book or the Humanist Manifesto etc. etc. I suppose this comes from my belief that school systems should not be biased in the information they offer in an attempt to get their students to think critically rather than just be dumping grounds for the carefully currated information and theories that the school believes in despite their claim of impartiality. But that seems like a pipe dream at this point.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
@Tim G.: “The plan to let parents read to a kindergarten class from their child’s favorite book went awry when one mother wanted to read passages from the bible.”
The plan appears to be from the school, not from the mother. Apparently, she thought her son’s favorite book was the Bible. Whether or not that’s true is of course up for question and not really addressed here. But the school wanted the parents to do the reading.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
OK, if ALL students are having their parents read, then I revert to my original comment.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Why should she not be allowed to read from the Bible. Will she be allowed to read a book on evolution. A book on fairy tails. What is it that you are afraid of….. That the truth may be revealed? to children. Lat I looked the Dollar had a inscription on it… IN GOD WE TRUST! But don’t allow Him in the schools. You have truly been deceived by the god of this world
June 5th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Thankfully Darwin’s discovery of evolution completely rules out the possibility that man came from some dirt that a god used to make an image of himself out of, and that woman came from a rib of this dirt-man.
Compare the amount of interlocking data from every applicable scientific field including geology, physics, and even molecular biology, all having observational experiments done, that test and prove the hypotheses of evolution occurring (elevating it to a FACT and a THEORY), with the DISCREDITED FAIRY TALE - a big invisible monster that nobody has ever seen or heard did it.
It is frightening that mass delusions of supernatural beings still exist today. It is the same thing as saying that my invisible fire breathing dragon is more powerful than your multi-headed fire spewing sea monster. So, come around to my way of thinking or I will commit atrocities for it.
Everything from the murderous blood stained Sky Daddy who drowned virtually all humanity and other life, sentenced everyone to leave Utopia after Eve (persuaded by a talking snake) ate a magical apple, had Jonah take a ride in the belly of a whale, ruined the life of Job, told Abraham to murder his own kid, killed all the first born of Egypt, had his chosen people commit genocide on the original inhabitants of Palestine, to letting his own son be nailed to some wood so mankind could party with a ghost - is a FAIRY TALE that humanity needs to reject if we are to see many more generations.
By the way if you are dumb enough to believe that this fable is real; in the Bible, the murder count is God/millions - Devil/zero. Whom would you rather spend time with, a vengeful monster or a fallen angel who thought he had a better way? I am NOT promoting the Devil, just illustrating the craziness in this stupidity.
Hopefully if you were previously deluded, after reading this you will see how foolish you have been. Society needs to accelerate its retreat from worshiping outlandishly absurd fictional psychopathic beings.
There is no middle ground.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Mr. Fizz, I have a question for you. Maybe you can help me in my own search for truth. Is not the theory of evolution frightening? Is not evolution the belief that life spontaneously appeared out of nothing, which contradicts the second law of thermodynamics {entrophy}?
Is it plausible to belive that something as intricate and complex as the human body, which is made up of thousands of complicated parts and pieces formed out of nothing? Taking a step back, is it believable that a single cell could have formed from nothing? A cell, the basis of tissue, the basis of organs, the basis of intricate systems that go on in our bodies every day; can such a vital piece of a human being simply decide to be? Much less, decide to be perfect and functioning?
Where would such a perfect cell originate from, if not made by a creator?
What would you say if I told you that the reason God sent His son to die on a cross was because someone had to suffer the consequences we chose for ourselves. He suffered because He loved us, which is why He created us in the first place.
Yes, the wrath of God is something to be feared and respected, but the mercy of God is something so overwhelming and almost uncomprehensible. The grace we have been given is a powerful thing. That He would create us to love Him, and then send His own Son to die in our place as the sacrifice for our unholiness…would time be spent better with the Savior, whose love is evident in the very creation around us? or with the devil, who has fallen from the side of God to his own corruption?