Teacher Sues School After School Tells Her To Take Down Bible Verses, Other Quotes

Teacher Sues School District After Officials Demand She Remove Bible Verses, Religious Items From Her Classroom


Here we are again, everyone. We are back to this same place, and it seems like every year we have an argument about what is appropriate when it comes to religion in the schools and what is not. It has been a while since the Supreme Court has seen a case like this, although they have brought down opinions over the past five years or so when it comes to the Ten Commandments and other religious symbols. If this were to get to the Supreme Court one day, which it more than likely will unless the school caves in, we would be waiting to see if the court would move away from what they have said in the past or would stick to their reasoning that all students and teachers have rights and those rights do not end at the school door.

This case is quite similar to many others, although a little different in the way the teacher went about her teaching and what she had on the walls. Joelle Silver, a science teacher for the past seven years, keeps Bible verses on her desk on sticky notes. This may bring her solace during the day or may be personal in nature in other ways, but they are on her desk where students would not necessarily see them on a daily basis. She also has Bible verses up on the walls, including 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 which states:

"Be on Guard. Stand true to what you believe. Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done in love" 

I am trying to figure out and maybe some of you can help me, but what does this verse do to make people believe in one religion over another? There was a reason the Bible was used in schools for many years prior to the 20th century assault on religion from the Left. Our earliest schools had a Bible in the classroom, and children read from it. It was not to indoctrinate them but to teach them right from wrong, which even the teachers and parents of the day saw as good for their children. It does not matter if you believe what the Bible says in theory or not, but if it is teaching a good lesson then the book can be taken as a religious text or as a book to teach right from wrong in a society that truly needs it these days.

The school did not like it, and she was told to take down the verses and the quotes, one from President Reagan that mentions God. The school must be afraid of something, or someone, if they are going to these lengths when they have to know if they talked to their council it would be hard to win a case like this if the teacher was ready and willing to fight this all the way to the highest court in the land. But the school did what many others have done and have decided to forget the precedent that has been set in cases like this and try to foil the teacher's First Amendment right to free speech and free exercise of religion. Remember, just because you enter a school, which may or may not be government funded, does not mean you give those rights up.

The question now is why, in a a society where we blame everything that happens on the gun manufacturers and not ourselves, would we demonize a teacher that frankly just wants to show her students that you can be a good person and still make it in life? Why is this a bad thing? Why is it bad to teach our students good to counteract all in society that is bad? To those who will disagree with me, you will say you have the freedom FROM religion, and that is not the case at all. You have no freedom from my religious preferences, and if that is something you do not like try and have the Constitution changed. Until that time, I have the right to practice and so does this teacher.

This teacher also brought up Creationism while she was teaching her science class about evolution and other theories of the universe. This is a no-no in a public school setting, and this teacher knew that. She should have known she would not be allowed to keep doing this, because schools around the country forbid you to even mention Creation when talking about the origins of the universe. That seems odd considering evolutionary theory is called that for a reason (it's a theory people) but for those who do not like kids to get the whole story and make up their minds on their own, this works out well for them.

The school is telling the teacher and the students that being a good person through religious texts is not going to fly there, and if the community or the teacher does not like that then they can move on to somewhere else. We the people FUND these schools and we pay these teachers to teach our kids not only the ABC's, math, and science but also some right and wrong when it is appropriate to do so. How can the teachers do it if they want to use Bible verses and are told they are not allowed to do this? This is not an Establishment Clause issue, she is not establishing a religion for the nation. She is not telling kids what to believe and she is not teaching lessons from the Bible that cannot be seen in other texts through the centuries. Nothing she has done would force someone to believe something they do not want to believe, yet the way America is today is that we are told to keep religion in the home and in the church, and that is all!

I refuse to stand by that because it goes against everything this nation was founded upon. We were founded on religious liberty, free speech, and the right to speak about religion when and where we want to. If we choose not to listen or not believe, that is a choice we all have but we do not have the right to limit someone elses speech just because we do not believe. We have to take the Establishment Clause into context, and it was never meant for a school. It was meant for the federal and state governments, not forcing people to pray to one God over the other and if they choose not to follow the state's direction, they cannot be punished. The state is barred from setting up that religion, federal or otherwise, and that was the point of the Establishment Clause if you read it very closely and look at the history behind it.

I will be keeping a close eye on this case as it goes through the courts, because it will be a very interesting one indeed. Those who disagree with the teacher do so because they do not believe the same way she believes, but at the same time say they are Constitutionalists because they want our government to follow the letter of the document. How can we have it both ways? The Founders NEVER said in the Constitution to keep religious matters inside your home or church. They wanted religious freedom, something they did not have under the crown. How can you justify shutting down someone elses right to speak freely in an open forum when our Constitution rightly says that should not happen? Is it religion that scares you or is it just the fact that a little Bible in the classroom every now and then may actually TEACH these kids a little about right and wrong?