In Case You Slept Through Church On Sunday

In case you slept through church on Sunday and didn't hear, a child at Negreet High School, in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, was bullied by a teacher in class because he failed to understand Christian jargon on a test. When she wanted to know if it was "amazing what the ______ had made", he wasn't able to answer the question or fill in the blank. Besides the fact that this question appeared on a science test, and christian myth has very little to do with science, the sixth grade boy is of Thai background, and his family is Buddhist. Rita Roark, the teacher, will not give students credit for any work in science class reflecting any theory besides creation, and the notion that the earth and all life is only six thousand years old. His parents were already offended by the electric marquee that generates bible verses in front of the school, and when they complained, Principal Gene Wright told the Buddhist parents that "this is the bible belt", and that the law mandating no religion in public school was not applicable because of that prime bible belt location! Wright was not concerned in the slightest that Roark had informed the sixth grader, before the entire class, that "Buddhism is stupid". When the parents took their complaints to the superintendent, Sara Ebarb, she suggested that they change their religion! When they told her they were not going to convert to christianity, she told them that they should send their son to a school in a different school district, about thirty miles away, that had more children from different cultures!

Not only does Negreet High School unlawfully overlook Abingdon School District v. Schempp, which guarantees and prescribes that all public school children be educated in a non-religious environment, but Brown v. The Board Of Education In Topeka clearly grants public school children the right to attend the closest public school, un-harassed, with no pressure to convert to any religion and no favoritism of one religion or culture over another. This is very reminiscent of Frankfort High School, in Northeast Kansas. Teachers mercilessly bully any child whose parents are not christians, and have pressured yours truly to convert or attend one of their half baked churches countless times. The minister of one of those churches had the gall to ask me if my Dad was "satanic", and if I had learned my religious and cultural identities from him, which, as a matter of fact, I did; but the suggestion that my father is "satanic" insulted me to the extent that I will never allow my children to enter her filthy church again. Quite a few of the christian young people in Frankfort Kansas, the same ones who drive through the lawns and onto the porches of others in attempts to hit small children and pets, use religion at their PUBLIC school as a fulcrum from which to bully others and make them miserable. Dean Dalinghaus, the principal at Frankfort, clearly states that the 1963 FEDERAL law does not apply to him or to Frankfort School because the "majority" did not wish to obey the law. Curiously, this is his approach when faced with other criminal behaviors among faculty members, too. Predictably, the ACLU does not agree with Dean Dalinghaus, and he is very upset that he is no longer welcome to invite non-christians to "get saved" at school functions anymore. A little less predictably, he whined, complained, and threatened when I stopped holding Frankfort accountable to Brown v. the Board of Education and enrolled my children in USD 497 Lawrence, a considerable distance away. It turned out that he was grubbing for enrollment dollars, and Lawrence got the money granted by the state that my children would have brought this year, rather than Frankfort. Dalinghaus will not be bothered with equality and the lawful administration of a school, but puts on quite a production as an enrollment dollar whore.

The ACLU is now assisting in a lawsuit against Negreet High School in Sabine Parish. I will be following the proceedings with great interest. I predict that all the schools in Sabine Parish will find themselves obliged to become more professional and law abiding in the very near future, and when the case is concluded, I will not hesitate to remind the judicial system in Kansas that USD 380, which pimps Frankfort High School, treated my children in the very same manner that Negreet High School treats Buddhist children.