Wednesday, October 26, 2005

1670 Kindergartner's free speech

Can a kindergartner's poster be hung on the bulletin board of the school if he depicts Jesus? Well, after 6 years, the court of appeals has sent it back to a lower court for another look at free speech.

"Antonio Peck, who attended Catherine McNamara Elementary School in Baldwinsville, N.Y., as a kindergarten student during the 1999-2000 school year, included an image of Jesus and other religious elements in a poster created in fulfillment of a homework assignment on the environment.

The student reportedly was expressing his belief that God was the only way to save the environment."

I suppose the school administrators thought the next step would be forced teaching of Creationism, if a 5 year old thought God could save an errant human race from self-destructing.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan remanded the case back to a federal district court Monday [Oct. 17] for further consideration, so I suppose this could end up someday in the Supreme Court, or by the time little Tony graduates from college. WorldNetDaily

The boy's counsel said: ""The school humiliated Antonio when the teacher folded his poster in half so that the cutout drawing of Jesus could not be seen. To allow a kindergarten poster to be displayed for a few hours on a cafeteria wall, along with 80 other student posters, is far from an establishment of religion.

"To censor the poster solely because some might perceive a portion of it to be religious is an egregious violation of the Constitution." " NewsMax

"In the Peck vs. Baldwinsville School District case, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals joined with the ninth and eleventh Circuit Courts who hold the view that discrimination--even in the public school setting--is unconstitutional.

Conversely, the first and tenth Circuit Courts opine that discrimination in the public school context is permissible.

This split in opinion could land Antonio in the Supreme Court--something which Staver says he would be all for." Catholic News Agency

The child must be white, male, a non-immigrant and non-handicapped, because I didn't see anything about this in the MSM. If you did, just correct me with the link.

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