-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Northwest Rankin High School is a public high school located in Flowood, Mississippi. On Tuesday April 9th, a student, representing Pinelake Baptist Church, addressed an assembly at the school and showed a video of two young men who had been “saved” from drugs and sex. Several students reported the mandatory assembly, during school hours, to the Appignani Humanist Legal Center (AHLC). AHLC coordinator William Burgess sent a letter of condemnation to principal Charles Frazier.
Rankin County School District released a statement saying the assembly was not mandatory:
Our students have the freedom to organize student-led and planned meetings and the assembly in question was student-led and organized.
However, the AHLC letter claims that the assembly was mandatory and an e-mail, shown here with names redacted, from Frazier to faculty members bears this out. As the AHLC letter notes: “Making attendance voluntary would not cure the constitutional infirmity.” This is borne out by the Court’s 
opinion in Lee v. Weisman (1992), where J. Kennedy wrote in the opinion of the Court: “the government may no more use social pressure to enforce orthodoxy than it may use more direct means.” The school can take no part any private student meetings promoting religion.
The AHLC letter notes that having a student deliver the presentation does not “absolve the school and its officials from liability.” That the presentation was school-sponsored and held on school property during class-time is sufficient for a violation of the Establishment Clause. The violation is exacerbated by Frazier’s promoting student attendance of the assembly as a requirement.
The AHLC letter also claims that several students, who tried to leave, were harassed by a principal and told to sit back down. One has to admire the students’ courage, in the face of official intimidation, in attempting to escape the proselytizing.
In her concurrence in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984), J. O’Connor wrote:
The purpose prong of the Lemon test asks … whether, irrespective of government’s actual purpose, the practice under review in fact conveys a message of endorsement or disapproval. An affirmative answer to either question should render the challenged practice invalid.
Clearly, school officials used the authority of their office to require and maintain attendance at a Christian proselytizing meeting. This is a blatant example of Christian privilege and a violation of the Establishment Clause. The Rankin County School District better rein in Frazier, or they’ll have to use taxpayer funds to pay for defense lawyers in a civil suit.
The intent of the Establishment Clause is found in the words of the founders, whose envisioned a “perfect separation” between church and state. The progression towards that “perfect separation” requires constant vigilance. History shows us that those in power will use that power to maintain their dominance. New converts are essential for religions to maintain the status quo. Let religion obtain those converts using the persuasion by argument, rather than the coercion by authority. The historical predominance of the latter testifies to the ineffectiveness of the former.
H/T: Hemant Mehta.
@ James Knauer,
I think you just described some factions of the TeaPublicans.
“Several students reported the mandatory assembly, during school hours, to the Appignani Humanist Legal Center (AHLC).”
Vigilance … good for them!
Bruce retreats to third grade with, “The enemy of my enemy is my ally. The Muslims joined the Nazis by choice.”
If you still need enemies to get by in life as an adult, time for the therapy, there, Old Bruce. Adults only have enemies they invent. Adults realize they cannot ever control the actions of others, even the ones they dislike. Adults therefore do not waste precious time assembling “enemies lists,” particularly those named en masse.
You talk in such childish generalities… ALL muslims, ALL jews, ALL christians, ALL nazis… and so on, it does not surprise me a bit this disconnection from reality creates enemies in your pedantic mind.
Too bad for Bruce they do not exist. Reality always exposes these alleged masterminds as barely literate cave-dwellers that we have named titans, and have armed ourselves as if we face divine armies instead of one-hit wonders who turn out to be sore losers.
Sore losers such as Bruce.
I think the principal figured that it was his ‘Christian duty” to try and stop the students who tried to leave and to let this assembly go on. An assembly like this belongs in some church, maybe aptly named the Assmebly Of G-d church, instead of the appropriately named northwest rankin high school, i.e. where the taxpayers are located who pay for the school and what goes on in it. (and sadly for the lawyers now because of this idiocy)
Bruce reminds us he lives in 1950-something with,, “If it wasn’t for Christanity and judism you’d be kissing some nazis ass right now, During WWII the Muslims sided with the Nazis”
Neither accurate nor relevant.
Great catch Nal.
Thanks.
Great job David. It amazes me that a principal would make an obviously unconstitutional decision like this and try to force students to comply. I guess when schools in Georgia still hold separate but equal proms, I should not be surprised.
Bruce – thats just swell, you just go ahead and ignore the reasons why the “Muslims sided with the Nazis” – you may also want to ignore the fact that a very large number of American Christians did too and Ireland was also sympathetic. You may want to try finding out why that was instead of voluntarily siding with stupid.
But that strawman isn’t going anywhere. If a Muslim student had attempted to hold this same assembly they would get the exact same response from the AHLC – same if a Shinto or a Hindu group tried. But I bet those would not have been permitted by the school administration. But the point remains, the constitution is quiet clear on this.
” The Muslims joined the Nazis by choice”
I suppose you may be onto something… if you believe all Muslims are exactly the same and that groups and issues never, never change.
But except as an historical curiosity, what exactly does this have to do with anything that has happened it the past, say, 50 years?
Cheers for those students who stood up to adult authority and for religious freedom.
Several students reported the mandatory assembly, during school hours, to the Appignani Humanist Legal Center (AHLC).
Kudos to those students… We need more of them.
Interesting story, David.
And I love the graphic.
The enemy of my enemy is my ally. The Muslims joined the Nazis by choice
If it wasn’t for Christanity and judism you’d be kissing some nazis ass right now, During WWII the Muslims sided with the Nazis
Anyone see this story out of Charleston, West Virginia?
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/17/1883121/west-virginia-abstinence-assembly/
The US sided with the COMMUNISTS too! How about that? In fact, if it hadn’t been for the Red Army, we would ALL be speaking German now. I hope that you will consider that.
There were some Zionists who sided with the Nazis since they too wanted Jews out of Europe and into Palestine. In FACT, the Stern gang in Palestine was conducting attacks on the British in conjunction with the Nazis during WWII.
I am struck by how good Christians like to LIE about their actions, and hate freedom for others to disagree with their religion. It is not too surprising that this takes place in the state where the cops were murderers and terrorists during the civil rights era. I recall the Governor of MS made an appearance at the trial of the white terrorists in Philadelphia, MS to give official support to the police terrorists. So this latest outrage is NO surprise and gives the LIE to the idea that Christianity is a religion of peace.
Definition of PROSELYTIZE
intransitive verb
1
: to induce someone to convert to one’s faith
2
: to recruit someone to join one’s party, institution, or cause
It is the duty of right thnking Americans to interrupt these types of displays….
It is a constant struggle in this country of ours, but the Constitution, as has been applied, is perhaps one of the most fortuitously crafted documents in history. However, be aware, America, that we get to pursue this fight of applying the Constitution, and elsewhere the rights of correction are, if they exist at all, much harder to carry out. Celebrate our fortune and example, and hope, for the rest of the world.
What do you expect…. This is crazy and crazy do crazy things…