Reading, writing and denying the killing of over 6 million Jews. That’s apparently part of a California schools’ curriculum after parents discovered an assignment telling their children to write papers denying the holocaust.
Rialto United School District assigned eighth grade students an assignment to “write an argumentative essay, based upon cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe [the Holocaust] was an actual event in history or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”
The interim Superintendent of the District, Mohammed Islam, claimed that no offense was intended to Jewish members of the community or Jewish parents.
“The intent of the writing prompt was to exercise the use of critical thinking skills,” Islam wrote in a statement. “There was no offensive intent in the crafting of this assignment. We regret that the prompt was misinterpreted.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Associate Regional Director wrote the assignment had no benefit for students.
“It is ADL’s general position that an exercise asking students to question whether the Holocaust happened has no academic value,” Matthew Friedman wrote in a press release.
A district spokeswoman said the department that assigned the project will undergo cultural sensitivity training. The student’s assignment was canceled after public outrage.
The virulent anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation is attacking the 2013 National Baseball Coach of the Year because he would lead his team in a prayer before they took the field.
Larry Turner of Owasso High School teaches his baseball players to do more than just play the game. The team also visits war veterans in hospitals and teaches the sport to children who want to compete in the Special Olympics.
Now, the aggressive anti-Christian FFRF says a “concerned citizen” filed a complaint with them over the coach leading the team in prayer. The Freedom From Religion Foundation routinely files complaints all over the country where it is not located on behalf of anonymous people they do not provide evidence of truly existing.
The group did say in their letter they have no actual evidence of the coach leading the prayers, just the allegations of an unnamed source.
The anti-Christian group has been focusing this year on high school coaches who may lead or participate in prayers with their teams before games.
The school has not yet responded to the demands of the FFRF.
A group of New York City pastors is banding together to get the policy banning churches from using public schools for worship services reversed despite a court saying schools had the right to ban Christians from their buildings.
Pastor William Devlin told the Christian post that he was optimistic the policy would be reversed and surprised many by saying the far-left mayor of the city was on their side.
“Pastors across New York City are very encouraged about recent developments on the right to worship. We know that Mayor de Blasio is with us 100 percent and any day we will hear that he has reversed the draconian and discriminatory Department of Education policy … we have his word,” Devlin told the Post.
An appeals court in New York City ruled in favor of the Board of Education in their battle against churches holding worship services in school building after school hours.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mayor Bill DeBlasio said “I believe that a faith-based organization has a right like anyone else … to use that space.”
The ruling against churches is being appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Another school has been forced to remove a Bible verse after the virulent anti-Christianist group Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint.
Parkersburg South High School in West Virginia had Philippians 4:13 hanging in their gymnasium and also posted on the school wrestling team’s website. The team has been using the verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” as a way to encourage the team’s members to strive to be their best.
The FFRF, which is not even located in West Virginia, filed a complaint with the school earlier this month as part of their campaign to eradicate Christians and any reference to Christianity from the public.
The foundation’s attorney claimed the simple existence of the verse meant the school was endorsing Christianity.
Wood County Superintendent said they painted over the verse on the wall of the gym that was above the entrance to the wrestling room and has removed it from the website.
A Texas second grader was humiliated in front of her classmates when a teacher took away her Bible during reading time and told her that the Bible is inappropriate reading material.
The girl was reading the Bible during a “read to myself” session in class.
The family has asked the Liberty Institute to represent them as they deal with the school. A spokesman for L.I. said it’s ironic the teacher took the child’s Bible as the library at Hamilton Elementary contains copies of the Bible.
“So if it’s appropriate for their own library, why on Earth would it not be appropriate for their own students,” Michael Berry, senior counsel with the Liberty Institute, said to KHOU-TV.
The school district released a statement saying that during the student’s “independent reading time” that kids are required to read a book that is “just right,” meaning that most of the kids can understand the words.
The Bible was seen all over the hallways at a Missouri school after a teacher told two students they weren’t allowed to even read their Bibles in the hallway.
Kiela English, 15, a freshman at Potosi High School, was reading the Bible with a friend and discussing a passage when a teacher confronted them and said they had to put the Bible away and stop pushing their religion on people. The two girls had not been speaking to anyone else about the Bible or its contents.
Kiela’s mother posted on Facebook about the incident and it developed into a call for students to bring their Bibles to school and carry them around as a form of protest showing their rights to have their Bibles in school.
Students say the protest was effective in that not only did they show their dedication to the Scriptures, they also did it in way that did not disrupt the school day or show disrespect to the administration.
Potosi Superintendent Randy Davis said an investigation is ongoing regarding the incident but that he had no problem with the girls bringing their Bibles.
“We have absolutely no problem with our students bringing their Bible,” Davis said. “We firmly believe in freedom of religion and students practicing their religion.”
A Bible curriculum created by the president of the craft chain Hobby Lobby has been approved for use in an Oklahoma school district.
Mustang Public Schools says the course created by Steve Green’s foundation focuses on the history, meaning and the influence of the Old and New Testaments will be an elective course.
“The course is an elective,” Mustang Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel told the Christian Post. “When our pre-enrollment packets were returned by students earlier this semester, more than 170 students indicated the course would be their first choice for an elective class.”
The Green Scholars Initiative worked with over 70 scholars of different faiths from Jersualem, Oxford University and Baylor University to create the course. The content has been put through a “rigorous review” to ensure there is no Christian bias in the text.
Critics admit that teaching the Bible itself is not a violation of church and state. However, they worry that the teachers will use the class to teach Christian apologetics.
A teenage boy ran through his high school with two ordinary kitchen knives, slashing and stabbing anyone who came across his path.
By the time 16-year-old Alex Hribal was finished, 22 people had been wounded including at least three facing critical injuries.
Witnesses say that Hribal, who was described as “quiet and unassuming”, tackled a freshman to the ground in what looked like a typical fistfight. Nate Moore, a classmate of Hribal, said he went in to break it up when he discovered Hribal was actually stabbing the victim in the stomach.
Hribal then slashed Moore’s face and started his rampage.
An assistant principal at Franklin Regional High School, 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, tackled Hribal and held him until others could help subdue him.
Police say Hribal is facing four counts of attempted murder and 18 counts of aggravated assault. He will reportedly be tried as an adult.
His lawyers are asking for a psychological evaluation. Witnesses say during the assault that Hribal’s face stayed completely expressionless and police say he has only commented that he wants to die.
A kindergartner whose school accused her of making up a story that a staff member told her not to pray over her lunch has been vindicated when the young girl was able to identify the person who told her to stop praying.
Gabriella Perez had told her parents Marcos & Kathy that when she tried to pray over one of her lunches at school last week a staff member told her not to do it and that it was not good for someone to pray.
The parents contacted the principal of the school who said she informed teachers of the rights of a student to pray. However, all the teachers said they did not know of such an incident happening and the school spokesman insisted there was a “miscommunication” on the part of the child.
“The situation as stated by the parent has not occurred according to the school’s investigation,” Michael Lawrence of Seminole County Schools told WKMG-TV.
Now, after the school was approached by lawyers from the Liberty Institute representing the family, a new investigation is being launched after Gabriella was able to positively identify a lunch monitor out of a lineup as the one who told her that she had to stop praying.
“My goal throughout this process has been to defend my daughter’s religious liberty,” Marcos Perez said in a statement. “I am thankful that the school now believes that something clearly happened when my daughter attempted to say grace, and are taking swift action to correct the situation.”
A pair of federal judges is endorsing discrimination against groups because of their faith in a ruling against churches meeting in New York City schools.
In a 2-1 ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the court said that New York City school officials could deny Christian groups the same right to rent space inside their buildings that are offered to other groups. The liberal judges ruled that the Free Exercise Clause did not require government to finance exercise of religion.
However, the dissenting justice pointed out the majority’s endorsement of discrimination.
“Allowing an entity to use public school space open to all others on equal terms is hardly the financing of that entity,” Judge John Waller wrote. “However, shutting the door to religious worship services in such a setting when every other activity is permitted strikes at the Clause’s core.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, who is representing the church involved with the case, is working on an appeal of the ruling.