4/20/2012

Once again this year, the ACLU is aggressively targeting school administrators and principals with misinformation about students’ rights during commencement activities.  Using highly intimidating letters, the ACLU bullies are threatening school systems with “prolonged and expensive litigation” should they allow prayer in school ceremonies! 

We are diligently working to counter the ACLU’s outrageous use of misinformation and intimidation, but I need your help to once again confront this deep-pocketed, anti-religious machine. 

Please see my important message below – Mat.

This is the time of year when Liberty Counsel gets inundated with legal requests for clarification of public school commencement “do’s and don’ts” – especially in regard to prayer. This year is certainly no exception.

And, as usual, the ACLU has already launched its campaign of misinformation and intimidation.

++The heat is on in the Sunshine State.

For the past several years, our most intense battleground in fighting the ACLU’s assaults on the First Amendment rights of public school students, faculty, administrators, staff members, and parents has been in Florida. 

In recent years, we have fought and won several critical cases against the ACLU in Florida and have successfully defended our clients’ First Amendment rights.  

Here is the background on our latest confrontation with the so-called “watchdogs of liberty” in Florida…

A few months ago, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 98 into law. This bill allows Florida school boards to “adopt a policy allowing an inspirational message to be delivered by students at a student assembly.” 

Within weeks of the law’s passage, the ACLU had their attorneys threaten school systems with “prolonged and expensive litigation” should they decide to follow the state’s new guidelines as delineated in Senate Bill 98.

I was closely following the implementation of the new Florida law since Liberty Counsel has been deeply involved in Florida public school prayer cases for many years.

Upon reading the ACLU’s letter brazenly threatening Florida school officials, I knew we needed to take immediate action!

So, we also contacted the Superintendents with our own message of how to implement SB 98.  We counseled school officials to stay as close to another legal precedent as possible: Adler v. Duval County [Florida] School Board, a case I litigated for eight and half years against the ACLU, ultimately securing a great victory after four trips to the federal Court of Appeals (twice before 12 judges) and two trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case has set the standard on these vital issues. 

With the Adler victory, Liberty Counsel won the right of students to pray or give religious messages at graduation.

The case established the legal principle that public schools are free to adopt a policy that permits students or other speakers to present secular or religious messages at commencement ceremonies, including prayer.

The key to correctly handling graduation prayer or the expression of religious viewpoints in public schools is that the school administration should remain neutral - neither demanding nor prohibiting voluntary prayer and/or the expression of religious viewpoints.

Students do not lose their constitutional right to free speech when they step to the podium at graduation!

To allow a variety of viewpoints while specifically excluding religious viewpoints at graduation is neither American nor is it consistent with the Constitution. While schools should not force people to pray, neither should they force them NOT to pray!

++Working together, we can stop the ACLU’s attack.

I want to send a copy of the Liberty Counsel “Patriot’s Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools” to an administrator in every school in Florida, as a priority, in the next 30 days. I need your help to accomplish this monumental task – and to counter the ACLU’s misinformation and threats! 

The “Patriot’s Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools” contains important information that can turn the tide of religious and free-speech anarchy in our public schools. This booklet should be in every home and school in America!

This vital resource, containing crucial information about the rights of educators, administrators, parents, and students has never before been produced in such a compact, easy to carry format.

Right now, I need Liberty Counsel team members to sponsor 20 Florida public school administrators to receive this vital booklet. There are 3,629 public schools in Florida.

For a $30 gift, would you sponsor 20 schools?  Of course, you can do more or fewer, however the Lord leads you – but sponsoring 20 schools is a tremendous starting point to turn the tide in Florida.

Please click here to learn more about sponsoring schools and/or to learn how to obtain copies of the “Patriot’s Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools” for your family members, church, or civic group:

http://www.libertyaction.org/1345/offer.asp

++This handbook belongs in every school in America.

But there is more.  Our ultimate goal is to have these booklets in ALL of the approximately 100,000 public schools in America. We can also include schools in Michigan and North Carolina in our next flight of 10,000 schools.

The debate over First Amendment rights within our public schools is a national issue – and the ACLU is on the forefront of clouding the debate with their threats and intimidation.

Here is a bit of good news: Earlier this week, the Jackson County School Board in Mississippi unanimously passed a student speech policy, which will allow the senior class to pick a student speaker to deliver a two-minute message before and after graduation. The contents of that speech may or may not include a prayer! This, too, is based on our victory in Adler.

The Jackson County School Board got it right – and I commend the school system for taking that stand.

In order to reach another 10,000 schools in Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina with the “Patriot’s Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools,” I need at least 500 Liberty Counsel team members to sponsor 20 schools. A $30 gift would sponsor 20 schools.

We have already produced 100,000 books, and are prepared to produce even more, in the inspired belief that friends like you will help us get them into the hands of administrators and others in ALL of our nation’s public schools.  Please consider sponsoring 20 schools or more as, together, we impact the next generation and beyond! 

http://www.libertyaction.org/1345/offer.asp

If you want to order copies of the handbook to distribute to local schools in your area, click here for more information on how to order those for yourself:

http://www.libertyaction.org/1345/offer.asp

 I urge you to join with thousands of other God-fearing Americans and help us stand up to radical factions that seek to destroy our religious, social, and moral foundations – starting with protecting our public schools.

THANK YOU in advance for sponsoring this bold initiative to reach into our public schools and impact future generations of Americans!  May God abundantly bless you!

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman

Liberty Counsel

P.S. I am pleased to be offering this valuable resource that contains so much hard-earned insight into the rights of educators, students, administrators, and parents. As I said, I believe this booklet belongs in every household and school in America!

We MUST fight with all our strength to defend and restore our precious, God-given liberties in this nation! We simply cannot accept the systematic destruction of religious freedom in America. Click here to send the “Patriot’s Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools” into schools all across America:

http://www.libertyaction.org/1345/offer.asp

 

 

 

+ + Comments? Questions?

 

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=89341&CID=345&RID=35184121

 

Liberty Counsel, with offices in Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and family.  Liberty Counsel . PO Box 540774 . Orlando, FL 32854 .800-671-1776