-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.
Well they told us juniors that it was required and I felt uncomfortable and no one seemed to care
I am a student at Northwest High School and I attended the assembly. At the very beginning, a student spoke to us and made it very clear that if we felt uncomfortable at any point, that we were more than welcome to leave the building and go sit in the library until it was over. I felt as if the assembly was more of the students sharing their personal stories and testimonies as well as sharing hope with us students, not shoving it down our throats whatsoever. I never once felt harassed or forced to be there. The speaker even admitted that this whole thing would not be a popular thing to speak about, but they all decided that it was worth all of the ridicule and uprising in order to share the hope that they have before they graduate from their high school. I commend them for having the boldness to stand up in front of the whole student body for what they believe in because I sure couldn’t have.
Hayden,
You are not alone. The best defense against a religious worldview is a rational mind and a good education. Once you learn the counter-arguments, their proselytizing will have no effect on you.
I know jake personally and jake we were forced I am a junior and I tried to tell my teachers I didn’t want to go and my friend Justin also said he didn’t want to go and we were told we had to attend
Hayden, thanks for stopping in to let us know your thoughts and the emotional toll this whole matter has taken on you and your fellow students. The school is obviously in the wrong, but they seem to have trouble understanding the First Amendment.
Keep on going public, and if they do it any more, please let us know.
I am a student at northwest this was awful we weren’t allowed to leave and if we tried we got questioned and the administrators made a scene I’m not a member of any religion and I had to sit through this and there was nothing I could do… I had to watch my friends cry and sit there while this so called religious group of so called converted Christians shove this religion down our throats, this violates our rights and I know for a fact if there was an assembly for Muslims or any other religion it would be shut down
Jake,
Thanks for stopping by and providing that information. Good luck with your studies.
I meant was not mandatory for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade.
I’m a current 10th grade student at the high school. The assembly wa mandatory for 9th, 10th, and 11th graders but seniors WERE forced to attend the program. I’m a Christian my self and I didn’t attend the assembly because they didn’t preach about ALL varieties of Christianty. I’m a Catholic by the way. This was basically a rally for Southern Babtists and that’s it.
I live in Rankin Co., MS, and I am not shocked, amazed or even slightly surprised by this. Had this assembly been called by someone other than a “mainstream” Christian (around here it is Baptist or Methodist,) the principle would not have allowed it. Hindus, Muslims, etc., in the school district are ignored. Atheists and gays are bullied (yes, by the Christians.)
… * *
it has know scenter, know middle ground.
the great power that was given to Satan was eternal lust, with horns coming from his body, several heads, claws, and appendages, to devour souls with PLEASURE …
Y.M.C.A.
*
hmmm!
** may be there is tuu of them, or moore
the gos-spell says to she-illed your I’s and a good set of googles will duu !
would the prophess-see aa dis-asster in a conception…
… * I would weave shews in two clothes… from satans own mouth was said, on tee-vee, so you got on it down pat !
… JESus sent sum-one to take an ass and the ass got away with the ass sow what did the ass dou the three asses went into town and gee-u.s. road it into town.
now know body where the ass is.
the church will count every step knowing the count-tease and perish-is. and you will here a loud scream.
yahoo! an idiot, mountain dew the shelves were left mt. and they were looking for a baker. c a lie forn-nick ehhh-shun the church has made it’s ceiling with GOD ! … get over it !
( … i expect the president to keep his oath, i will not be tested. )
in the coonception I left the seeds in the valley, like a bull in a china clause-it.
you will see jesus evry wear! have you ben to mexeeko the are all over and go bi- hey Zeus there has to be a morning after and a po’side-in advent-sure, edg’r
a chickadeed came from the tel-lee. the shews were thongs all the way up the crack of their asses. some-one in the colon-knees changed hisssss name two jesus christ the thurd.
mist-her chin-shakes dick-wiggles hymn-self mike-all moore said: that cans-ass was a good place fore all ill-eagles and crow was herd. o is fore-ever!
they say that there great supper-stich-shuns…
THE EARTH DID SHAKE ?…
Mike S.,
“I hated it, but back in the 50′s you had no recourse. Today’s Right Wing Christians are trying to take us back to those halcyon days of the 50′s (Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet), when the reality is that the 50′s weren’t nearly as great as these souls nostalgically remember them.”
They are nostalgiac for the days when Jews, non-Christians, and other minorities “knew their place” and didn’t speak out.
The “student-organized and student-led” religious assembly is the ploy du jour to attempt an end run on separation of church and state. The evangelical right is absolutely fixated on this issue. I love injunctions.
Bring back the lions.
Just last night in downtown Delray Beach FL was a band playing and singing serial Jesus songs paid for by our tax dollars in the City bandshell, as part of the City’s obsession, er, promotions to bring people downtown to spend $$$ on Saturday night. As a taxpayer, I vastly prefer hearing of Jesus at church functions, and strongly object to having it forced down the throats of the citizenry at a public forum and public expense. Outrageous.
How about schools just stick to education and not engaging in the personal politics of the administrators and employees. Too much to ask I guess.
I learned a lott in school also. gee-alla-gee
… he who is without sin will cast the first stone…
core-all gabels, pet-toss-key is mi state stone…
… on this rock i will build…
… all that is holy will be declared…
… in the beginning: genisis: GOD said that HE was coming to the earth bi declaring a day of rest, HE is 24, 7 and never rests
Jesus said ! will pre-pair a great feast for them who worship him, and you will SEE it. and the signs will be revealed…
… THEE FATHER WILL COME AFTER mi …
tomorrow WILL bring other daze!
there is the per-me-in bay-sin, a great basin and carsin sit-tee,
to walk perfecktly with GOD you mite want to read lie-sins plates.
they say that a war would break out in Heaven… there is know middle ground, the plan-its would be known,..
.. from the beginning GENe-iSays the THE KNEW TESTAMENT WOULD BE WRITTEN ! … for the father has no mercy…
… from the be-gin- all names were know that would be placed by others even if it were their names, fore GOD is everything…
… so the best way to play golf is knot to even tee-off for I know where the rich’s going ! remember the whore-risen in the whole in one ! watt-ah fox…
… it says that i would have problems with eletron-eeks in thee battle with satan, they will whine, and roar when ! work with them…
president obama, you will turn off the water in the white house to save money, it is my water and you have paid me nothing.
since you are the president you can shut off the water in the houses so you don’t have to take any crap from them. it is written, and: i even have heard this taught.
I wish I had some organization to go to back in the 50’s when I was in Public School. As a Jew, in an elementary school where 50% of the students were Jewish, each Christmas and Easter I had to participate in official school activities celebrating these holidays. I hated it, but back in the 50’s you had no recourse. Today’s Right Wing Christians are trying to take us back to those halcyon days of the 50’s (Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet), when the reality is that the 50’s weren’t nearly as great as these souls nostalgically remember them.