Declaration of Independence..... BANNED!!!!

[u2sarajevo]

Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School

Wed Nov 24, 2004 04:12 PM ET
By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment.

Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.

Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.

Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.

[dude1394]

So let me pull my declaration of independance out and see what the ACLU is threatening the school board with, the rights they are trying to "protect".

- Is it the first statement that says that due to the "laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them" this declaration should be made?
- Or maybe it's the second sentence that states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". You think the ACLU is trying to keep us from "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that was endowed by our "creator". (i.e. God, not the primordial soup, I guess the founding father could have said endowed by the primordial soup).
- Maybe it was the statement about the founding fathers appealing to the "supreme judge of the world" for the rectitude for this declaration.
- Maybe it is their last sentence...
"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred honor".

Giant men, who would be astonished how small our blue states have become.

[Mavdog]

First, the ACLU is not involved in this case in any way as far as the news reports state. The teacher is being represented by a religious rights group.

Second, the principal is prohibiting the use and the dissemination of "suplemental materials" that the teacher prepared. It is not a case where the Dec of Independence is not allowed in the class as the title states, it appears that this teacher had put together his own set of materials that had not been included in the normal and approved class instruction.

Without any knowledge of what the supplemenatl materials stated, and what the teacher's intent was in preparing the additional materials, there is no way to determine just who is in the right and who is in the wrong. A public school teacher does not have the right to promote their own religious agenda in a classroom and if that is what this man was doing he should be prevented from doing such.

[dude1394]

Agreed, but the ACLU WOULD be on the side of the seperation of the declaration from god and we all know it. Also it's pressure from lawsuits like the ACLU supports that causes the pressure of a school board to do something this stupid.

[Mavdog]

Originally posted by: dude1394
Agreed, but the ACLU WOULD be on the side of the seperation of the declaration from god and we all know it. Also it's pressure from lawsuits like the ACLU supports that causes the pressure of a school board to do something this stupid.

The ACLU would be on the side of an individual who asked for the court's interdiction when their liberty to not have a religion or a religious creed forced upon them is threatened, in this case it appears by a teacher who took it upon himself to promulgate his beliefs to the students.

The Declaration was not banned, just the specific non-approved materials this teacher introduced into the classroom.

By saying that preventing this teacher from introducing unapproved course materials into the classroom is "stupid", do you take the position that a teacher should be allowed to introduce any materials they want into the course instruction without the school's approval?

[mavsman55]

It's the declaration of fricking independence Mavdog. It's not forcing religion upon anybody.

Do you have any idea where our country would be without it?

[dude1394]

It's shocking to me that you would try to parse the banning of a part of the declaration of independance. Might as well band this part "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights"...

You put way too much faith in governement sir.

[Mavdog]

As I said above, we have no idea how this teacher was using the dec and in what context he presented the materials. This is an issue of a teacher bringing into the classroom materials that have not been approved by the school admin. I asked above if you take the position that a teacher should be allowed to introduce any materials they want into the course instruction without the school's approval. Clearly you don't, the teacher erred.

If you do approve of any teacher inroducing whatever they wish into the curriculum, you have too much faith in teachers.

[dude1394]

No I do not approve of a teacher bringing whatever they want. However I DO approve of a teacher bringing in the declaration of independance, constitution...little things like that.

[Epitome22]

From what I understand from watching Fox News. The orthodox Christian teacher was trying to convince his students as to why saying "One nation, under god" in the pledge was important and was using founding documents to convince his students that the the founding fathers were christians that wanted to build a christian republic and therefor America was a christian nation 'under god'


Conservative Christian white males. The new bearers of perpetual victim politics. The NAACP could only blush.