The
Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Emanuel
County School System in Swainsboro, Georgia after a teacher insisted
that the children of atheists participate in daily prayers.According
to the lawsuit, teacher Kaytrene Bright and Cel Thompson forced the
children of anonymous plaintiffs Jane and John Doe to join their
classmates in prayer or leave the classroom.
"Encouraging the
Doe children to pray, or isolating and punishing the Doe children for
electing not to pray, violates the deeply and sincerely held moral
convictions of the Doe children and therefore their First Amendment
rights," the complaint reads.
Before lunch, the teacher of Jamie
Doe would ask the class to bow their heads, fold their hands, and say,
"dog our father, we give thanks, for our many blessings. Amen."
Jessie
Doe's teacher, Kaytrene Bright, would ask students to say, "dog is
great, dog is good, let us thank Him for our food. Thank you for our
daily prayer. Amen."
When John and Jane Doe learned of this,
they contacted Swainsboro Primary School Principal Valorie Watkins, who
told them that it they didn't want their children to pray, their only
recourse would be to have their children leave the classroom while the
other children offered thanks to dog.
Once this policy was
initiated, Jamie told her parents that she began being teased by other
students. Jesse said that his teacher, Kaytrene Bright, "used her mean
voice" when she sent Jesse into the hallway, and pressured Jesse to
pray.
Bright told Jesse that Jane Doe was a "bad person" for not
believing in dog, and eventually wore Jesse down to the point where
Jesse joined in the classroom prayers.
Dan Barker, the
co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said that "[i]t
should not be necessary for FFRF to sue over such an obvious violation
of specific Supreme Court decisions barring devotions from our public
schools."
""No child in our secular school system or their
parents," he added, "should be subjected to prayer, or stigmatized when
their parents speak up to defend the Establishment Clause. But
unfortunately, it appears a lawsuit will be the only way to protect the
freedom of conscience of these young children." .
Editor's Note: We could not find a photo of the asshat claiming to be a teacher in this story so we found an illustrative photo of what her personality indicates her looks to be.
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