Middle School Teacher's Memorial

[emilynghiem]

A Religious Memorial Honoring a Middle School Teacher is Altered after Atheists Point out Constitutional Problems

In 2004, Ravenswood Middle School (West Virginia) teacher Joann Christy died in an accident. It was obviously devastating to the community and the school built a memorial in her honor.
The problem is that the memorial included several Christian crosses and images of angels:


The Freedom From Religion Foundation, when told about the problem, faced a tough dilemma: Should they ask school officials to alter the monument and remove the Christian symbols on principle, even if it led to emotion-driven backlash from people in the area?

I am torn on this. On one hand, I understand the issue here. You can't have Christian symbols at a school. The crosses were removed, not the angels as they're not really Christian symbols.

I just think this one is a little petty. It's a plaque for a beloved teacher and community figure on the sidewalk. I feel the same way about the roadside crosses that FFRF was asking to be taken down. It seems petty.

On the other hand, there are no degrees in this. You can't have religious symbols on school property. I am sure that a beloved teacher who was an satanist and whose family wanted to honor him with a pentagram sidewalk plaque would get rejected instantly. But that hasn't happened, so we can't really know, can we?

Torn.

I would leave it to the family and community and not try to impose outside agenda that isn't within that community.

With smaller groups, it is easier to work things out and form a consensus on things like this.

if this nonsense continues, I am recommending that people organize their community groups to "buy out" their public school properties and start running their own district, where they can decide things locally.

These issues should have an agreed way to work out for the whole district, and have all residents agree to those rules. in cases of conflicts, decide how conflict resolution and mediation are going to work.

If nobody in the district complains, that should be recognized under free exercise of religion, since nobody within that community is being excluded.

People need to learn conflict resolution skills anyway. Especially if you are going to try to hold people to one policy, you need to agree how to accommodate the different beliefs within your community. Work it out locally, and there's no need to call in the feds to tell you how to settle it.