The Supreme Court handed down another 6–3 decision collapsing the separation of church and state on Monday, ruling in favor of more sectarian prayer in public schools. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District asked whether Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach, had a First Amendment right to pray with students at the 50-yard line after games. According to some teammates, this practice coerced players into joining—and practicing Christianity at school—for fear of incurring the coach’s disfavor. Nonetheless, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion for the court found that Kennedy’s school violated his rights when it asked him to pray in private.
The court has an 87% rate of siding with religious cases since Roberts. Previously it was in the 50s. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/briefing/supreme-court-religion.html The separation of church and state was integral to religious liberty. Now that religion is creeping into our government there will be conflict between religions in public institutions.
I heard Sotomayor speculating that she believed that it could have that effect, but am not sure there has been testimony from teammates on that. There could be and when I see it, I will say, "there it is." Just saying I have only heard it in the form of speculation from the dissenters.
I guess the question is "why do teachers have pictures of their spouses in the classroom"? I can't remember a single instance of a teacher doing that in my entire public school life. Teach. I can learn math and science, or English without knowing who your husband or wife is.
It is a problem though when you let these kind of religious activities be driven by academic leaders on public school property. There is no way a kid objecting to it would not get some type of negative feedback from the coach or other players who are in favor of it. There is always going to be peer pressure. And how do you prove it if the 5 kids who spoke up about it are playing less. Coach just says they are not doing well in practice and case closed. And what about hte Jewish, Muslim or Hindu players....Some religions are agaisnt kneeling in prayer. What happens to the kids that dont want to kneel in the group. What if at another school a muslim coach wanted the kids to do a muslim prayer in the middle of the field. Cons always see things from a narrow point of view unfortunately when it comes to this. The simplest solution was to keep ALL religious activities out of schools. There is ZERO benefit breaking down the barrier of church and state and we are not a religious government. However the con court is starting to feel its power and cross a very serious line. Public schools are not allowed to promote or endorse any specific religious activity associated with school.
But a teacher could have a picture of their husband and children on their desk if they wanted to, I have seen it. it is not against any law. teachers dont shove it in your face, it is just there on their desk. But now instead of saying ALL teachers should remove pictures of family from their classroom, the government is saying only gay teachers should be banned from doings so. Why?
Well, the article says that the school is going the extra mile to protect against a law they consider to be overly vague. But as a parent of a student in a Florida school, I am just fine with removing all pictures of spouses regardless of orientation. Lets get back to studies. The government isn't saying only gay teachers should be banned from having pictures of spouses, though. That's simply not true.
The Constitution does require separation of church and state but contrary to what the libs argue, it does not create an affirmative obligation to hunt down all signs and connections to religious affiliation and snuff them out. I am in the camp of keeping things very separate but in this case the court concluded that the coaches prayer was well off to the side. I would have to be closer to the case and the facts to form an opinion. In regard to keeping religion out of schools though, there is the important fact that we have the religion of secular humanism being adopted and taught in the classrooms and by the state every day. So the notion that we do not have a state religion is a crock.
But it does not ask that ALL teachers remove pictures, it just asks gay teachers to remove pictures. The issue is not what you are personally finew with but what the actual law or regulation is saying.