TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR RELIGIOUS MUSIC Date sent: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 02:16:17 -0500 (EST) From: Tim Thornton To: C-News Subject: C-NEWS: Religion in schools: then and now Send reply to: Tim Thornton Something else to file under "look how far we've come". The following are two items that were in the 12/21/97 Bryan/College Station (TX) _Eagle_. First, an Associated Press article: TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR RELIGIOUS MUSIC ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A high school choir director was suspended after leading a concert that administrators said contained too many Christian references. About half of the songs at the concert at Highland High School had Christian themes. No songs referred to any other religion. District guidelines were established in May on the separation of religion from regular school activity, saying "schools should be religion neutral (neither promoting nor inhibiting religious beliefs) so as to assure comfort to all students." Also in today's paper was a column in which the author recounted what was in the local news in December of 1972. One item read as follows: Dec. 7 -- The annual Christmas parade winds through Downtown Bryan. The first-place award for a religious float goes to the Bryan High School Industrial Arts Club. To my knowledge, school administrators were not alarmed at the use of school resources in the blatant promotion of one religion over all others. Also, there is no record that concerned parents or our good friends at the ACLU filed any lawsuits over this incident. -- Tim Thornton http://cis.tamu.edu/~x085tt/info/ mailto:timt@pop.tamu.edu ------- To subscribe to c-news, send the message SUBSCRIBE C-NEWS, or the message UNSUBSCRIBE C-NEWS to unsubscribe, to majordomo@world.std.com. Contact owner-c-news@world.std.com if you have questions.