In the Establishment Clause We Trust: St. John’s County, Flori-duh, Tries to Indoctrinate Students – Gets Sued

Flori-duh, where they try to 'save' our children by robbing them of soul

In Saint John’s County, Flori-duh, the Webster Elementary School didn’t get the memo that public schools aren’t supposed to act as religious indoctrination centers. Accordingly, the school planned to use the Diamond Rio song, In God We Still Trust, in its end of the year assembly — requiring students to rehearse the blatantly religious lyrics.

The school did offer an option to students who didn’t want to participate:

The suit alleged the Webster School teachers in charge of the assembly — Dawn Caronna and Debbie Moore, who along with the district and Principal George Leidigh were named as defendants — told students March 11 if any of them objected to singing “In God We Still Trust,” they wouldn’t have to do so. But if they didn’t wish to practice that song they would be excluded from the entire performance. (source)

This kind of a “choice,” hasn’t fared well in the courts in the past. In Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992), the U.S. Supreme Court confronted a situation in which religious leaders were asked to give a benediction at a middle school graduation ceremony. The middle school made the same argument, that anyone who didn’t wish to attend would not be required to attend. However, the court held:

To say a teenage student has a real choice not to attend her high school graduation is formalistic in the extreme. True, Deborah could elect not to attend commencement without renouncing her diploma; but we shall not allow the case to turn on this point. Everyone knows that, in our society and in our culture, high school graduation is one of life’s most significant occasions. A school rule which excuses attendance is beside the point. Attendance may not be required by official decree, yet it is apparent that a student is not free to absent herself from the graduation exercise in any real sense of the term “voluntary,” for absence would require forfeiture of those intangible benefits which have motivated the student through youth and all her high school years.” Weisman at 595.

When it comes to elementary school students, there is a heightened concern that religious exercises, under the color of official state or school-sponsored action, are particularly coercive in nature. See Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 583-84 (1987) (“The Court has been particularly vigilant in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause in elementary and secondary schools.”).

As we have observed before, there are heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools. Lee v. Weisman at 592.

Parents of two of the students filed this complaint in the Middle District of Florida. Additionally, the parents are seeking a preliminary injunction against further school-sponsored proselytizing. The county’s response is here.

My bigger question is this: Why is it that these teachers decided to use such a bunch of no-talent peckerwood ass-clowns’ music for their brainwashing session? I’m very uncomfortable with in-school proselytizing. However, if it must be done, MUST it also be done in a way that completely robs our children of soul? If I were a high school teacher, I might have the kids sing something religiously based too, but for frick’s sake, Diamond Rio?

THIS is what good religious music sounds like. And if my daughter came home from school singing this, I’d just think her music teacher was wicked cool.