Corporal Punishment In Schools - Redux

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It is bad enough that schools consider corporal punishment a viable form of discipline but, where is the outrage by the parents?

Apparently, Memphis thinks if you spare the rod you spoil the child. Let's check-in with Maureen Downey over at AJC.com on. "Why would Memphis or any school system reinstate corporal punishment?"

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Cheatham County BoE Settles ACLU First Amendment Lawsuit

Cheatham County Court House
Image by jimmywayne via Flickr 

Cheatham County tried to do just that (cheat them that is) but got a beat down by the ACLU instead.

Tenn. school board settles lawsuit over First Amendment violations
By Bob Allen  
Thursday, March 04, 2010

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) -- A Tennessee school board voted March 1 to settle a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union last fall alleging a pattern of unconstitutional promotion of religion.

The Cheatham County Board of Education voted 5-1 to accept a settlement agreement with the ACLU of Tennessee, ending negotiations that have been going on since January.

Under terms of the agreement, school officials will no longer encourage prayer or promote their personal religious beliefs to students in class or in conjunction with school activities and events. Invocations will no longer be permitted at graduation ceremonies or school functions and speakers will no longer be selected because of their religious affiliations.

In addition, school officials will no longer permit non-student third parties, such as members of The Gideons International, to distribute Bibles during school activities or instructional time.

School officials will not cite the Bible or other sacred texts as authority for historical or scientific fact to students and will make good faith-efforts to avoid holding school programs at religious venues.

"We applaud the Cheatham County Board of Education's decision to uphold the principle of religious freedom," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU-Tennessee. "The signed agreement ensures that all students will be treated fairly, regardless of their religious beliefs, and that the school system can focus on what it does best: providing a quality education for Cheatham County students."

The Tennessee chapter of the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the school district Nov. 16 in federal court after six months of negotiations failed to resolve the dispute.

The ACLU sued the school district on behalf of two former students and the families of two current students who alleged that board members and the principals of two schools for years have endorsed and promoted religion through extracurricular activities like marching band, choir and sports; classroom instruction and related content; and graduation ceremonies and other school events.

Specific allegations included:

    * A band instructor who, while leading the marching band in practice for an upcoming football halftime performance, stopped and called on a particular student to pray.
    * A December 2007 concert where students sang Christmas and other seasonal songs and the choir director said something like, "We all know the reason we are here tonight, even if we are not allowed to say it" to the crowd.
    * A band Christmas concert in 2008 where students were asked to read lyrics or introductions to Christmas songs before the band played them. One of the plaintiffs was selected to read a religious lyric, but was reassigned a non-religious lyric after another student objected that it shouldn't be read by a non-Christian.
    * Distribution of Gideon Bibles inside classrooms at Cheatham Middle School, in which students were instructed to line up to receive Bibles and to write their names in them.
    * One high-school teacher displayed a foot-tall cross in his classroom next to a whiteboard used for student instruction. Another teacher required students to read and write about the biblical creation stories as an assignment for English class. A world history teacher introduced "intelligent design" as an acceptable alternative to evolution. An American history teacher read, in an angry tone, a handout emphasizing that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation" and criticizing the ACLU. None of those incidents, the lawsuit argues, were related to the general curriculum of the class or relevant to lessons being discussed that week.

Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center said at the time if the allegations were true, the school district in Cheatham County was "in clear violation" of the First Amendment

Tenn. SBoE Is Looking For A Fight

John Thomas Scopes
Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr

What is it that these states do not get, particularly Tennessee. Did they not learn anything in 1926? No matter how many times the law has gone against SBoE's they keep coming back for more. You have to admire their persistence and their stupidity.

Tenn. OKs guidelines for teaching Bible

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The state Board of Education has approved guidelines on how to teach the Bible in public high schools even though there’s concern the curriculum could be challenged in court.

The guidelines approved this week are in response to 2008 legislation, which authorized the state to create a course for a “nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible.”

State officials said they tried to develop principles that are safe from legal challenge. But some say a state-approved Bible course could violate church and state separation, depending on who is teaching it.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee responded to concerns about religious activities in state public schools by sending out its guide — Know Your Rights: Religion in Public Schools — to schools systems across the state.

Hedy Weinberg, the state’s ACLU director, told The Tennessean that the state seemed sensitive to concerns that the classes could be used to try to convert individuals. However, there are few details on how the classes will be run.

“Whether these classes are constitutional depends on who teaches them and how they are taught,” she said. “The devil is in the details.”

Board member Richard Ray voted in favor of the standards, but is concerned potential lawsuits could create a distraction for schools.

“We have so much that needs to be done to elevate our kids in math and science, the focus of education should be right there,” he said.

Kent Richards, Old Testament professor at Emory University and executive director of the Society for Biblical Literature, has spent five years developing guides for teaching the Bible in public schools. He worked with Tennessee on this course.

Richards and other state officials agree that the focus must shift to properly training educators who will teach the course.

“One of the important things is that teachers are teaching about the Bible and not professing some religion or professing that the Bible is the only road to take,” Richards said. “That’s what every school and every school attorney is concerned about: not crossing that line.”

The course — which will teach students about the content of the Bible and its historical context — is an elective, meaning high schools can choose whether to offer it to students as a social studies credit, and students can decide whether to take it.

Before the state-approved curriculum, school districts could develop and offer their own courses on the Bible, and some still do. State social studies specialist Brenda Ables said the legislation actually complicates the issue because it doesn’t require districts with existing Bible courses to convert to the state’s curriculum.

“We think we’ve gotten this curriculum written to meet all guidelines that would uphold court challenges,” she said. “Those schools who had their own curriculum and were already teaching it will continue to do so until somebody tells them they can’t.”