Mark's Notebook


	If you believe everything you read, better not read. - Japanese Proverb

Student allowed to share Christian message (after threat of lawsuit)

Dallas Fort-Worth Star-Telegram

Thursday 22 December 2005, 1:43 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

by Eva-Marie Ayala, Start-Telegram Staff Writer

MANSFIELD - A fourth-grader who was initially told he could not share candy canes with religious messages did so at his class party Thursday morning.

Jaren Burch, a student at Tipps Elementary School, intended to bring the sweets with a story that told how they related to Jesus. Campus officials said he couldn't bring them with religious stories attached and a First Amendment discussion began.

On Wednesday, the Liberty Legal Institute, which was called by the Burches, sent the district a demand letter to comply with the student's First Amendment right to religious expression.

"Schools need to stop acting irrational and being overly paranoid," said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of the Plano-based nonprofit organization. "The law itself is that schools cannot push religion but students themselves can be free in their religious expression."

"It was not a district policy but had been a practice, or guidelines for principals, to try and be sensitive to students from all different backgrounds and religions at this time of year," he said. "In this particular case, we determined that we've gone a little too far with those guidelines."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/13422219.htm