Graduating Students Defy ACLU

[Polar]

Graduating students defy ACLUSeniors stand and recite Lord's PrayerMembers of the graduating class of 2009 at Florida's Pace High School have expressed their objections to ACLU restrictions on statements of religious faith at their school by rising up en masse at their ceremony and reciting the Lord's Prayer. The incident happened just days ago, but has been virtually ignored by media outlets throughout the region, according to officials with Liberty Counsel, a legal team representing Principal Frank Lay and teacher Michelle Winkler in their battle with the ACLU, which had complained that faculty and teachers were talking about their beliefs. Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace, a Santa Rosa County school, stood up at their graduation, according to Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel. Parents, family and friends joined in the recitation, and applauded the students when they were finished, Staver told WND. "Many of the students also painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith," the organization reported. "Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate," said Staver, who also is dean of Liberty University School of Law. "The students at Pace High School refused to remain silent and were not about to be bullied by the ACLU. "Schools are not religion-free zones, and any attempt to make them so is unconstitutional," he said. Liberty Counsel has been representing Lay and Winkler against ACLU demands that all statements of faith be censored. The law firm also had volunteered to represent the school board in the dispute, but board members chose their own outside counsel. The ACLU had sued the school six months earlier and as part of the discussions over that dispute, the school's separate counsel had agreed to a consent decree that "essentially bans all Santa Rose County School District employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities," Liberty Counsel's report said. The entire article can be found here:http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100274

 

[gumby]

Im glad for those students, we need more stand up christians like that. The school has no right to try and censor out christianity. America was based on christian values and beleifs and evryone has the right to exercise there faith.

 

[Lookin4wardtoHeaven]

Good for them

 

[Polar]

The ACLU is empowered when people cowtow out of fear.Many will enact the ACLU's requirements (even if they feel they are wrong) rather than face a lawsuit against an organization with deep pockets. The more that people stand up from the start, the more selective the ACLU will be in trying to force their will on schools, churches, individuals.