Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The ACLU Defends The Ten Commandments In School

Via the Daily Dish: As long as they're posted by students exercising free speech:

The ACLU of Virginia has come to the defense of a group of Christian athletes in Floyd County.

In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon, the civil liberties group said it had e-mailed the principal of Floyd Co. High School (FHS), and urged him to allow students to post their personal views, including copies of the Ten Commandments, on the lockers.

The e-mail comes one day after WSLS first reported that members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at FHS claims school leaders took down the copies of the Ten Commandments on their lockers.

School leaders would not confirm or deny the incident to WSLS. They would only state school policy that messages other than those such as 'happy birthday,' or 'go team,' were allowed to be posted on lockers without school administration permission.

The e-mail from ACLU of Virginia legal director Rebecca K. Glenberg drew a distinction between "school imposed religious expression," and "the personal religion expressions of students." The ACLU distinguishes the situation at FHS, from the Ten Commandments controversy in the Giles County Schools system.

"Schools have the authority to ban all displays on school property," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis, in a news release. "But if a school allows students to post some kinds of personal messages on their lockers, it must also allow other kinds of messages, including those that have religious content The removal of the Ten Commandments from student lockers at Floyd County High School appears to violate the First Amendment rights of students by discriminating against religious expression," added Willis in the release.