But the Christian Kids Don’t Get to Have a Bible Circle?
Color me Druid (which is not hard), but even I see a huge inequity in this. If it’s lunchtime and okay for her, why can’t the Born Agains gather, the Buddhists chant, the Native Americans do peyote? And she gets her own room?? Look, say your little prayer over your bologna sandwich like everyone else has to and save the good stuff for when school’s out. Or try homeschooling.
CLIFFSIDE PARK, New Jersey (AP) — Yasmeen Elsamra had a simple request: While her classmates were eating lunch, she wanted to go off by herself for a few moments to pray.
The 14-year-old was told she couldn’t, and went home distraught that afternoon in October 2003. Praying five times a day is a cornerstone of her Muslim faith.
“If I wasn’t allowed to pray my second prayer at school, I couldn’t do it at home,” she said. “When school finishes, the third prayer begins.”
Her family contacted a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked the school district to reconsider. Eventually, the district acknowledged it had no policy preventing a student from praying on his or her own during free time, and allowed Yasmeen to use an empty classroom to unfurl her prayer rug, face Mecca and touch her head to the floor in a few moments of worship…
Nanny State | Mr. Bingley | 
September 7, 2005 9:37 am
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Sigh. Don’t you know? Islam is the Religion of Peace, whereas Christianity is the Religion of Chimpy McHitlerhalliburton.
It’s really all quite clear.
As long as they don’t hassle anyone for praying on their own time, I don’t have a problem with it.
Some of this stuff just gets downright goofy, though. Don’t they have bigger/better things to worry about in our schools? Like maybe, oh I dunno, teaching the kids something productive?
“If it’s lunchtime and okay for her, why can’t the Born Agains gather, the Buddhists chant, the Native Americans do peyote?”
They should mostly be able to: if the school’s policy is that free time is really free, then these are private acts not being “sanctioned” by the school and so the Free Exercise Clause has to allow for it, as does Equal Protection for “similar parties situated similarly.”
I say mostly because the peyote is a different question. The prohibition against it is religion-neutral: the fact that that impacts some religious practices and not others is irrelevant. If you worshipped the Aztec gods, you could BELIEVE in whatever you wanted, but the prohibition on murder would still prevent you from engaging in human sacrifice.
would still prevent you from engaging in human sacrifice
Oh great! NOW I find out…
And no, little brother. An education is the least of a school board’s worries.
(And Dave, if I had me one a them little Federal peyote/mushrooms cards, ‘prohibition’ wouldn’t be a problem.)
We can’t engage in human sacrifice? I’d better get rid of that altar when I get home…..no wonder I got so many strange looks from the neighbors.
[looks innocent and angelic]
CAIR, an advocacy group? Heheheheheh…
It’s too late, JeffS!!! The Feds are stormin’ the house as I write!!!
What is the point of having these damn silent black helicopters if you keep giving us away THS???
It’s called COVERT OPS! 😉
Oh, damn Cullen. With her eyesight she thought that said “cover up!”
Having worked in two NJ public school districts, and having some knowledge of the complexities of scheduling and the legal need to supervise all students at all times, I find the request for a private prayer room unreasonable. Most schools are crammed to the gills and don’t have the extra empty space. Furthermore, a teacher will have to supervise this child while she is praying (i.e. stand outside the door) because it is illegal to do otherwise. The thing is, in a public school, the kids have no “free time.” They are herded and supervised every second of every school day because of the fear of lawsuits.
So they have to then schedule a ‘prayer room’ monitor, on top of infighting about who gets lunch duty?
Can’t the teachers supervise them while they are sniffing those freshly mimeographed sheets in their break room?
Damn, I loved the smell of that purple ink…
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue…
Damn, I loved the smell…
Explains a LOT. I knew it couldn’t all be Janetics.
Mimeographs are long gone. No more cheap highs to get you through the school day. We have to rely on Advil.