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Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Church And State And School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some DeKalb County teachers raised such a fuss over where their back-to-school faculty meeting was being held today, Superintendent Crawford Lewis agreed late last week to let them watch the events via television.
Apparently, having to attend Bishop Eddie L. Long’s popular (not to mention extremely large) church, New Birth Missionary Baptist, made some educators uncomfortable.
Lewis told AJC education reporter Kristina Torres that the public school system simply didn’t have a venue big enough to accommodate 8,000 teachers. But there were enough complaints about the locale that he decided to provide another option.
This reminded me of a story I wrote a few years ago about a Muslim mother in Gwinnett County who protested the fact that her child’s fifth-grade graduation ceremony was going to be held in a Christian church. She said she shouldn’t be forced to attend someone else’s sacred site for a secular ceremony.
Much like Lewis, the public elementary school’s principal blamed the space issue. But it was common practice in Gwinnett, as it is in DeKalb, to use religious sites for school events.
So tell me: Is it ever appropriate to hold a public school activity at a faith-based venue?
