From the Desk of Richard Thompson
President and Chief Counsel, Thomas More Law Center
Brad Johnson, a highly respected math teacher for the Poway Unified School District in San Diego, California, is in a lengthy legal battle with his school board because the board ordered him to remove patriotic banners from his classroom walls. School officials said his banners impermissibly promoted a Judeo-Christian viewpoint by referring to “God, ” and might offend a Muslim student.
Brad’s offending banners included the phrases, “In God We Trust, ” “One Nation Under God, ” “God Bless America, ” and “God Shed His Grace On Thee.”
At a time when public schools across the country are denying America’s Christian heritage and subverting their students’ sense of patriotism, one courageous high school teacher dared to say “No!”
Can you chip in $25 or more to support Brad’s ongoing case? Please click here to donate
The Thomas More Law Center agreed to represent Brad without charge. After 3 years of litigation, which started in 2007, on February 26, 2010, Federal District Judge Robert T. Benitez ruled the school district violated Brad Johnson’s constitutional rights when it ordered him to take down his classroom banners.
Judge Benitez, in a strongly worded decision, stated:
“[The school district officials] apparently fear their students are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God’s place in American history and culture. . . . That God places prominently in our Nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”
Nonetheless, the Poway School District voted this week to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeal could take years. However, the school district isn’t worried about the costs. Their appeal will be funded by their insurance company.
But Brad Johnson and the Thomas More Law Center depend upon your generosity to fund our litigation. Please click here to donate
The ultimate outcome of this appeal will have implications for the entire country.
The school district’s discrimination against Christianity is outrageous! School officials left untouched religious classroom displays by other teachers that included a 35 to 40 foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha; a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon’s anti-religion song “Imagine, ” which begins, Imagine there’s no Heaven; a poster with Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins”; a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X, and a poster of Buddhist leader Dali Lama.
Please help Brad fight the anti-American, anti-Christian indoctrination of our school children. The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.
I hope you take this opportunity to make a difference in this important cause. Please click here to donate
Note from Kensei: If you do not agree with the obviously anti Judeo-Christian school board, or even if you beleive they are “simply” being overly politically correct – Please click here to donate and give what you can to the Thomas More Law Center to help fund this teachers case. If you, like many of us out there can’t afford the donation – then at least send a letter or an email to the school board on behalf of Brad Johnson expressing your outrage at this indignation. You can find the email address’s and phone numbers of the Poway School District board on the internet on the web site below…
Poway Unified School District
13626 Twin Peaks Road
Poway, CA 92064-3098
(858) 748-0010
www.powayusd.comIf our children do not learn the history of this great country, and do not understand the WHY of our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and every addition since they were originally written – then one cannot build the love of what they promise to and protect our right to, for each and everyone of us. Maybe most importantly – WHY so many men, women and yes, even children have given their lives to preserve & protect future generations UNALIENABLE RIGHTS - which were ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR to LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS – The Founding Fathers of this great country utilized those words in our Constitution to inure that everyone knew the very basis or core of the document – and from where these rights come from – NOT from man, or his laws – but from the CREATOR of MAN!
- Kensei
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- National Furor Over California School’s American Flag Ban – Results in Federal Lawsuit
- Kagan Takes Lead Against Patriotic Students at Harvard
- Poway School Board Continues Fight to Ban “God” In Patriotic Classroom Banners
- Teacher Has Constitutional Right to Display Patriotic Banners that Mention “God” in Classroom