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Students' Rights

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Cheyenne K

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While on another website, I read an article explaining the religious rights of students in the USA. I thought it would be a good idea to post it here, as I have seen a lot of stories in the media where Christian students are being attacked by a secular school unlawfully and that there were a lot of things unknown to myself about what religious rights I have in school before I read this, so it may be enlightening to others as well.

But this applies in the USA, so I am not sure how much of it still stands from country to country. If a topic has already been posted with this, feel free to delete it.

DISCRIMINATION—School authorities may not discriminate against religious activity or speech.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER—Students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say a prayer before meals, and pray before tests.

DISCUSSIONS—Students may attempt to persuade their peers concerning religious topics, just as they may political topics. Harassment, however, (which is not defined) is not permissible.

SCHOOL WORK—Students may use religious themes in their homework, artwork, or other assignments, and such work should be judged (graded) by ordinary academic standards.

LITERATURE—Students have the right to distribute religious literature (tracts, etc.) to their schoolmates on the same terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature.

RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS—Students may be excused from lessons that are objectionable on religious or other conscientious grounds.

CLOTHING—Students may wear clothing depicting religious themes, and these messages may not be singled out for suppression. They are subject to the same rules as apply to comparable messages.

CHRISTIAN GROUPS—Students religious groups at public secondary schools have the same right of access to school facilities as is enjoyed by other comparable student groups.

STUDENT MEETINGS—Student meetings may include a prayer service, Bible reading, or other worship exercise.

ACCESS—Students may use the public address system, the school newspaper, and the school bulletin board to announce their meetings, on the same terms as other student groups. (This only applies to schools receiving federal funds.)

GRADUATION PRAYER—School officials may not mandate or organize prayer at graduation ceremonies, nor organize baccalaureate services.

TEACHING—Schools may teach about religion, including the Bible or other scripture, the history of religion, the Bible-as-literature, and the role of religion in the United States and other countries. Schools are to be neutral with respect to religion. However, they may play an active role with respect to teaching civic values and virtue, and the moral code that holds us together as a community. Schools may not allow religious instruction by outsiders on school premises during the school day. However, school officials may dismiss students to off-premises religious instruction.

SCHOOL OFFICIALS—School officials, as representatives of the state, may not solicit or encourage religious activity, nor participate in such activity with the students.


http://christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g010.html
 
Yup, in Sociology every paper I wrote quoted the Bible at least a dozen times! I actually got better grades because my teacher was impressed by the command I had in understanding God's Word. She literally told me I taught her stuff about the Bible! (She goes to church and is Christian)

Also, we have a school group, the Christian Athletes group and they would pass out lolipops or candy-canes ever Christmas with a paper about the REAL story of Christmas. Interestingly enough the admin. made them stop and they complied. However, the Gay Straight Alliance can hand out condoms with a paper about confronting gay-ness with no problem...
 
Pard said:
Yup, in Sociology every paper I wrote quoted the Bible at least a dozen times! I actually got better grades because my teacher was impressed by the command I had in understanding God's Word. She literally told me I taught her stuff about the Bible! (She goes to church and is Christian)
:biggrin
I love quoting the Bible in every English essay that I write. I almost always find a way to work it in. It's funny becasue my teacher is a gay atheist. I think he tries to ignore it. :biggrin
 
LOL! A gay atheist!

Sorry...

Anyways, I had a Latin teacher who was a priest. Man, he literally recited the Lord's Prayer in like 15 languages. We were always talking about God and stuff, I just wish I was Christian when I had him as a teacher. My 8th grade science teacher and I had debates about God. I always argued for God and he always argued for something, not really sure what...

In health class I tied everything back to biblical teachings.

"Ian, what is your view on pre-marital sex?"

I responded, "That's adultery. Adultery is a sin. Shoot if I am gonna go to Hell for one night with a broad."
 
Pard said:
Yup, in Sociology every paper I wrote quoted the Bible at least a dozen times! I actually got better grades because my teacher was impressed by the command I had in understanding God's Word. She literally told me I taught her stuff about the Bible! (She goes to church and is Christian)

Also, we have a school group, the Christian Athletes group and they would pass out lolipops or candy-canes ever Christmas with a paper about the REAL story of Christmas. Interestingly enough the admin. made them stop and they complied. However, the Gay Straight Alliance can hand out condoms with a paper about confronting gay-ness with no problem...

Dang! In my school, I'd probably get failed and ridiculed. :lol The only exception would be my previous Global teacher, who was happy to discuss spiritual matters and allowed his students to do so as well. He's a good guy.

And our school probably doesn't have enough real Christians to even start a group like that, but I can see the thing with the Gay Straight Alliance. We don't have them handing out anything (yet) but they are probably the most outspoken group in our school as it is.


Nick said:
Pard said:
Yup, in Sociology every paper I wrote quoted the Bible at least a dozen times! I actually got better grades because my teacher was impressed by the command I had in understanding God's Word. She literally told me I taught her stuff about the Bible! (She goes to church and is Christian)
:biggrin
I love quoting the Bible in every English essay that I write. I almost always find a way to work it in. It's funny because my teacher is a gay atheist. I think he tries to ignore it. :biggrin

It’s funny, as my uncle had a teacher who was a gay atheist in college and whenever he did that, the teacher failed his essay regardless of whether or not it was any good.



Pard said:
LOL! A gay atheist!

Sorry...

Anyways, I had a Latin teacher who was a priest. Man, he literally recited the Lord's Prayer in like 15 languages. We were always talking about God and stuff, I just wish I was Christian when I had him as a teacher. My 8th grade science teacher and I had debates about God. I always argued for God and he always argued for something, not really sure what...

In health class I tied everything back to biblical teachings.

"Ian, what is your view on pre-marital sex?"

I responded, "That's adultery. Adultery is a sin. Shoot if I am gonna go to Hell for one night with a broad."

My seventh-eighth grade science teacher got into a debate with me about creation vs. the theory of evolution that lasted almost a whole period because I was one of two kids in my class that did not believe in the theory of evolution. The other one was my friend who does not believe in creation, but thought it was arrogant to assume that we evolved from apes and not the other way around.

But lol. I would have loved to be in your class for that.
 
Cheyenne K said:
It’s funny, as my uncle had a teacher who was a gay atheist in college and whenever he did that, the teacher failed his essay regardless of whether or not it was any good.
See in an English essay, it's a test of how well you wirte, not necessarily what you write, especially in creative writing. Writing about contriversial matters in creative writing can test the teachers' marking capabilities about not letting their personal views get in the way of a good creative writing, if you know what I mean.

Two years ago I wrote a creative writing task on the teachers at school (the teachers that were marking it). Initially they gave me a 3/20, but I got them to remark it on the basis of what I said above (it was written well, and they shouldn't mark me down if they don't like the topic), and I got a 15. Win. :biggrin
 
Nick said:
Cheyenne K said:
It’s funny, as my uncle had a teacher who was a gay atheist in college and whenever he did that, the teacher failed his essay regardless of whether or not it was any good.
See in an English essay, it's a test of how well you wirte, not necessarily what you write, especially in creative writing. Writing about contriversial matters in creative writing can test the teachers' marking capabilities about not letting their personal views get in the way of a good creative writing, if you know what I mean.

Two years ago I wrote a creative writing task on the teachers at school (the teachers that were marking it). Initially they gave me a 3/20, but I got them to remark it on the basis of what I said above (it was written well, and they shouldn't mark me down if they don't like the topic), and I got a 15. Win. :biggrin

Nice! :)


Lol. My uncle actually did an experiment to test his theory. Instead of writing as he normally did, he wrote with a very liberal bias, but used his grammar very poorly. He said it was the highest mark he had ever gotten. :lol
 
Cheyenne K said:
Lol. My uncle actually did an experiment to test his theory. Instead of writing as he normally did, he wrote with a very liberal bias, but used his grammar very poorly. He said it was the highest mark he had ever gotten. :lol
:hysterical
 
I tried writing from a liberal bias once, I could not pull myself to stoop so low!

In sociology I wrote a few essays that I tied to the Bible.

One was on torture, I concluded that the government's use of torture allowed to a certain extent, and used the Bible to back this up. (I know how that may sound, but I said that torture, as the UN defines it, is so broad it even covers being rude. I set a new definition for torture and took it from there. In conclusion I found that mental torture was permissible by the Bible's standards and it fell under the Romans "clause" on governments).

One was on abortion and why any form of abortion was an ethical nightmare and a crime against God himself, for it was God who created all beings and He knew all of us before we were even known by our parents.

Another was on the limited position God holds within the US government and why this needs to be reversed to how it had once been.

Another essay was on a dooms-day scenario. I was told to take the role of an aging docotr (like 60s or 70s) and decide if my skill set warranted my survival or if I ought to die for the benefit of the others in my group. I concluded that not only was my skill-set unneeded (all things are taken care of with God), but also that sacrificing myself is a noble deed and that my sacrifice would most likely warrant God's love upon those who I died for.

I wrote an essay on Katrina and New Orleans and how the government response was terrible because they responded at all. The proper thing to do would be for the government to step back and allow the private sector to bring together funds and efficiency to the recovery effort.

They all tied back to the Bible and I managed nothing lower than a 95 on any of my essays.

I also did a speech for English class in which I presented the case that the 1st amendment does not create a wall between God and State and that in fact our US government was designed with God at the top, and not hidden in the closet. Got a 80 something on that (pretty awesome because one teacher was an atheist and the other a liberal).

I wrote a thesis for history on why America was a great innovation and one of my reasons was because it was initially designed with the intent of putting God in His proper place (at the top) and how our rights are documented as rights from God and not from the government. Passed that one.

Last year I wrote a 20 page thesis on sea turtles and why we need to be wary of their extinction because they are part of God's design and any thing missing in His design could very well destroy the world we know. (Actually, I wrote a doomsday scenario for it and scarily enough... its coming true right now with the whole oil issue)
 
I'd say I've got a liberal bias on some issues and a more conservative stance on others. OVerall I'd say centre-left or moderately liberal.
 
This is some pretty interesting stuff. Luckily for me, I go to two Christian home-school tutoriols, so I don't ever have to worry about rights.
 
nalini-dahlia said:
This is some pretty interesting stuff. Luckily for me, I go to two Christian home-school tutoriols, so I don't ever have to worry about rights.

That's good. I go to a public secular school, so I have to know my rights here, especially if I want to do certain things, like the pro-life day of silence and such.
 
Cheyenne K said:
[quote="nalini-dahlia":1yavwtzx]This is some pretty interesting stuff. Luckily for me, I go to two Christian home-school tutoriols, so I don't ever have to worry about rights.

That's good. I go to a public secular school, so I have to know my rights here, especially if I want to do certain things, like the pro-life day of silence and such.[/quote:1yavwtzx]
Yeah.

It's sad when you really think about the fact that some schools don't let their students pray or read their Bibles. It's so weird and un-constitutional. *rant rant rant*
 
nalini-dahlia said:
[quote="Cheyenne K":1mtpcx8j][quote="nalini-dahlia":1mtpcx8j]This is some pretty interesting stuff. Luckily for me, I go to two Christian home-school tutoriols, so I don't ever have to worry about rights.

That's good. I go to a public secular school, so I have to know my rights here, especially if I want to do certain things, like the pro-life day of silence and such.[/quote:1mtpcx8j]
Yeah.

It's sad when you really think about the fact that some schools don't let their students pray or read their Bibles. It's so weird and un-constitutional. *rant rant rant*[/quote:1mtpcx8j]

Yeah. The biggest problem in my school is the hardcore-acceptance movement of every other religion except Christianity. For instance, in Global History, we spent a whole two days on Jesus Christ and Christianity. We spent two weeks on Islam. And in the textbook, both parts were filled with so many inaccuracies. And not even big ones either; like ridiculous little things. Or if I were to wear a head-covering as a Christian, they would tell me to take it off as part of the school dress code (which it is) but if we have a Hindu, Muslim, etc. wear one, nothing happens.
And of course, any science class is just a mess.
Unfortunately, it's not only the staff here that supports this, but the students as well.
 
Eh, what a mess. Sounds pretty rough :sad I have noticed what you're talking about. It's frustrating :confused

Why do things have to be so complicated and frustrating?! :mad
 
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