ACLU Overreach
In January, the Santa Rosa County School District settled out of court with the ACLU, agreeing to several things, including a provision to bar all school employees from promoting or sponsoring prayers during school-sponsored events; holding school events at church venues when a secular alternative was available; or promoting their religious beliefs or attempting to convert students in class or during school-sponsored events.
Mr. Staver said the district also agreed to forbid senior class President Mary Allen from speaking at the school’s May 30 graduation ceremony on the chance that the young woman, a known Christian, might say something religious.
“She was the first student body president in 33 years not allowed to speak,” he said.
Goodness. The girl’s a “known Christian”. Obviously that means she cannot be allowed to speak!
The ACLU has massively over-reached. What they’ve done here is not prevent a state body (the school) from endorsing a religion, but rather prevented an individual who otherwise would have been asked to speak at the graduation, from speaking. This isn’t the school bringing in someone from outside, this is a person who is a member of the class and chosen by the class to represent them!
While the school was clearly in the wrong on some counts — allowing religious messages from teachers during class, for example, the illusory “harm” that would befall anyone in the audience who might have heard her refer to religion is dwarfed by the actual harm done to her liberty. They’ve gone beyond demanding state neutrality on religion to demanding state censorship of it.