Random separation of church and state ranting
One of my friends from HS joined this group, and I had to post an open letter of sorts regarding religion and schools:
There's a large number of religious believers that feel that we should keep sex ed and other value-driven information away from schools because it's an intensely personal thing that parents should be the guiding force on. It's my opinion that spirituality should be handled the same way. I'm assuming you are perfectly okay with a Wiccan teacher 'expressing' their religious views? The 1st Amendment does not protect religious speech of a teacher in their official capacity. If they say "I personally find intelligent design to hold more validity than evolution" while at the head of a classroom, that is a de facto acknowledgement made by a authority figure representing the school, not a private citizen.
Would such a teacher, standing in front of a health class and saying "I personally find sharing needles when shooting up heroin to be perfectly safe!" have an equal right to their "personal opinion"? Most would say no. And yes, I'm equating "Intelligent Design" with sharing drug needles, because both are equally moronic. Feel free to pray to whomever you want to pray to, but don't try to come up with some pseudo-scientific bullshit to justify yourself and inject your beliefs into the school system.
When I was in high school, there were a bunch of flyers that appeared around the school for a Christian group's lock-in. They had all been stamped as 'approved' by the school's activities committee. I sent one of them to the principal with a note that said "Whatever happened to the Separation of Church and State?" I was just as leftist in my school days as I am now, and maybe a little more risk-taking. I was scared shitless when the principal called me into his office. They agreed with me, even if they did so because they thought there would be legal ramifications, that the administration shouldn't be approving the advertising of a religious group on school grounds. I believed then as I do now that you are welcome to worship where you want as long as it's not entwined with the government (ie, schools).
There's a large number of religious believers that feel that we should keep sex ed and other value-driven information away from schools because it's an intensely personal thing that parents should be the guiding force on. It's my opinion that spirituality should be handled the same way. I'm assuming you are perfectly okay with a Wiccan teacher 'expressing' their religious views? The 1st Amendment does not protect religious speech of a teacher in their official capacity. If they say "I personally find intelligent design to hold more validity than evolution" while at the head of a classroom, that is a de facto acknowledgement made by a authority figure representing the school, not a private citizen.
Would such a teacher, standing in front of a health class and saying "I personally find sharing needles when shooting up heroin to be perfectly safe!" have an equal right to their "personal opinion"? Most would say no. And yes, I'm equating "Intelligent Design" with sharing drug needles, because both are equally moronic. Feel free to pray to whomever you want to pray to, but don't try to come up with some pseudo-scientific bullshit to justify yourself and inject your beliefs into the school system.
When I was in high school, there were a bunch of flyers that appeared around the school for a Christian group's lock-in. They had all been stamped as 'approved' by the school's activities committee. I sent one of them to the principal with a note that said "Whatever happened to the Separation of Church and State?" I was just as leftist in my school days as I am now, and maybe a little more risk-taking. I was scared shitless when the principal called me into his office. They agreed with me, even if they did so because they thought there would be legal ramifications, that the administration shouldn't be approving the advertising of a religious group on school grounds. I believed then as I do now that you are welcome to worship where you want as long as it's not entwined with the government (ie, schools).