A Christmas Story
Something weird is going on up in Lawrence Township Schools. I got several calls this morning that the school district issued a memo right before Thanksgiving banning all religious displays in classrooms and school buses this holiday season.
That didn’t disturb me as much, but their defeinition of religious symbols, according to the callers, included Christmas trees, holiday wreaths , Santa hats and the Easter Bunny.
Someone needs to tell the school officials that a Christmas tree is not a religious symbol. Santa Claus is not a religious symbol. But if they’re going to say all things Christmas-related are religious symbols then they may as well get rid of poinsettias, cut down any evergreen trees on school property, and take down any stars in the classrooms since the wise men followed the star to the manger where baby Jesus was born.
If you want the full scoop on what Christmas symbols mean, click here.
If you want the full scoop on what’s going through the minds of the Lawrence Township school administration, consult a psychiatrist.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:43 am
This decree shows the ignorance of the Lawrence Township Schools administration. If the administrators are so stupid, what is the quality of the education they are providing to Lawrence students? Perhaps vouchers and private schools are the answer.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am
It was reported in this morning’s Star that the superintendent is retiring. I wonder if this is a cause, or an effect?
December 11th, 2008 at 11:10 am
What exactly is a holiday reef?? is that something that can be smoked?
December 11th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
To help the Lawrence Township School Administration prove that they are unbiased in this matter, I’ve provided a list of well known religious symbols and objects. Please have them removed from all school property immediately. If ANY of them are found in ANY of the schools or buses in picture or actual form, I fully expect and encourage a lawsuit for religious bias and the obvious 1st Amendment violations created by this ignorant memo.
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Here’s the list – please use it:
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A spiral, tree, claddagh, dragon, or clover. These are all druidic or celtic symbols. If they’re in the schools, file your lawsuit.
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Any cross, fish, heart, goblet, flame, trumpet, dove, conifer, wreath, garland, tinsel, christmas bulb, ginger bread, fruit cake, egg nog, eggs, reindeer, sleigh, bells, carols, stockings, elves, bread (communion), silver (e.g. 30 pieces), gold, or three wise men (you can include women here – we wouldn’t want any bias) are present, file your lawsuits now. Based on the content of the memo, I suspect you’ll have a hard time finding the three wise men (or women) in the administration offices, but the rest of the list will probably be everywhere. Just walk into a school library.
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And clearly we don’t want to rule out the occult. If you see a pentagram, a hexagram (like Israeli flag), an upside-down cross, a wand, a triangle, a knife, a broom, a union jack flag (witch’s symbol), an eye, or any of the astrological symbols (taurus, libra, etc), call your lawyers now. You have a bias lawsuit on your hands.
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And I’m just getting started, folks. We haven’t touched on Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Taoist (there better not be any yin yang symbols!!!), Rastafarian, or any of the other religions.
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So PLEASE – get this list to the Lawrence Township Schoolbord asap. They have a LOT of cleaning up to do, otherwise the bias and 1st Amendment lawsuits will be coming in fast and furious. If you have a child in any of their schools, ask thme to go into the library tomorrow and check out any book or magazine that’s either illustrated or has photo’s. Better yet, go through their text books. If you find any images from my list, you have your lawsuit. Please file it. It’s time that hypocrisy and Constitutional violations are stopped in our schools.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Did they celebrate Halloween, with the traditional Halloween symbols?
December 11th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Is Ebenezer Scrooge or Daffy Duck the Superintendent?
-What an outrageous and ignorant policy, void of thought!
December 11th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
You are so right, SB. And, the final kiss of death for our monetary woes is the tainted symbology on at least some of our paper currency: eyes, pyramids, etc. I wouldn’t want any of our blogging compardres accused of being haters or discriminatory. Please feel free to send all that problem paper money to WXNT with ‘Taxpayer 834512′ on the envelope. I’m sure Abdul will appreciate my service to the listeners in properly disposing of all these officious bills. No need to thank me. Glad to help during the holidays.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Maybe ‘holiday reef’ is the from the reunification tour of Cheech & Chong.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Perfect, Shorebreak.
December 12th, 2008 at 7:17 am
I get so tired of reading where we can not celebrate a national holiday like Christmas or you might offend someone if you say Marry Christmas. How about this? For those who think that Christmas has no place in America, go to work that day like any other day. If that is impossible because your employer is closed that day, do the right thing; reject your Holiday pay.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Given the close tie-in to the classic Santa figure, I say Coca Cola references of all kinds should also be removed.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Just one of the many reasons I work my a** off to send my children to St. Lawrence instead of Lawrence Township…
December 12th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
All this makes mw wonder about the administration staff and if they really learned anything while they were in school…. probably not.
Let us hope this is not the same mindset that works up lessons and lectures in the classroom.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Abdul, Santa Claus (aka) St. Nicholas most certainly is a reliogious figure in the Catholic mythology.
Although I am a godless agnostic I have no desire to eradicate religious symbols from public places. I’m not offended by a Christmas display anymore than I am by a 500 mega-watt flashing “Burger-Whopper” sign, probably less so.
Besides Christmas being part of our shared heritage (a weak legal argument) I don’t believe the 1st Amen would allow such. Our government is supposed to be indifferent to religion. Gov. cannot treat religious displays any different than other private, non-religious displays in a public area. So long as the School Board does not permit any other non-governmental displays upon its property, this policy would be alright. However, if so much as a PTA bake sale were to be advertised on school property a very strong case can be made to nullify this policy on constitutional grounds. But, certainly you know this.
Merry Christmas, from one non-Christian to another.