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Teacher Sues School District After Officials Demand She Remove Bible Verses, Religious Items From Her Classroom

Jan. 13, 2013 12:28pm Billy Hallowell

A Christian high school teacher in Cheektowaga, N.Y., is suing her employer after district officials told her to take personal signs and religious items out of her classroom. Joelle Silver, a science educator who has been working in the Cheektowaga Central School District for seven years, decided to take legal action after receiving a letter (read it here) asking her to comply with officials’ request.

So, what are the contentious messages and items in the classroom that were seen by officials as being problematic, you ask? WIVB-TV explains:

Silver had four small posters in her room with psalm verses on them, a poster with a religious quotation from Ronald Reagan, a drawing that the district said is reference to the crucifixion, a poster that had a Bible verse superimposed on the American flag and school books, among other items. The letter Silver received instructed her to take the items down and warned that failing to do so could lead to serious disciplinary consequences.

Superintendent Kane, who says he respects Silver’s teaching abilities, says the materials were found to be inappropriate and the district determined they needed to be removed.

Silver is being represented by the American Freedom Law Center, a group that handles religious liberty cases. The lawsuit, which has already been filed against the district, also names Board of Education President Brian J. Gould and Superintendent Dennis Kane.

Officials apparently became aware of the religious messages after a student complained to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group devoted to church-state separatism. The group subsequently threatened to sue if proper action was not taken to address the matter.

“I believe that my First Amendment rights were violated last June when I was asked to do some things regarding taking some posters down and to censor my speech in the classroom,” Silver said of the actions that led her to file lawsuit. “As a Christian and as an American I feel it’s incredibly important to fight to protect the rights that people have died to give them.”

Joelle Silver Sues Cheektowaga Central School District Over Religious Messaging

Photo Credit: WIVB-TV

The teacher also claims that she was told that participating in the school’s Bible study club was forbidden, as it would look as though the district endorsed her actions. She also had a prayer box that WIVB-TV reports was ordered removed from her classroom as well, as it was being used during the school day.

Comments (187)

TheFederalist
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 6:06pm
Board of Education President Brian J. Gould and Superintendent Dennis Kane, are the ones that need to be removed.
And the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group devoted to church-state separatism needs to get out of our schools and counter-sued. They do not and can not understand what what separation of church and state means.

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rickc34
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:48pm
The Anti-Christ will also be an Atheist. Atheist are tools for Satan. They wage war against God.

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LEGION57
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:09pm
I say do like the commie na zi ******* progressive pukes do. Hunt down the complainer and make life H E double hockey sticks for the irreligous little c sucker!

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UseTP2wipe
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:04pm
If you truly support America’s Constitution, you will support this Principal’s decision to ask Ms. Silver to remove the overtly Christian items from her classroom. The Constitution-as Mr. Kane very clearly outlined in the letter he sent to Ms. Silver) states that the gov’t-in this case, federally funded PUBLIC schools, should not make a law respecting an establishment of religion, which Silver is clearly doing. The bible verses, etc are not Hindu, Buddhist, or any other religion, other than Protestant, born again evangelical belief. You can’t do that. Not in a public institution like our public schools. If she wants to teach in a religious environment, she should look into teaching at a private religious school. There, her beliefs would be welcomed by all. It is clear she is trying to evangelize students, and not just instruct them about different religions present in our world. For the sake of our Constitution, our free thinking, and freedom-loving way of life, I hope that Ms. Silver is not victorious.

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:21pm
  if we are to have a constitutional society again, we must become consistent….i dont know why people dont understand this
  
  The liberals are selective about the parts of the constitution they want to follow….and so are the republicans/conservatives
  
  Report this comment
- HigherRoad
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:47pm
  If by posting quotations from President Reagan and motivational passages to encourage respect and honor among students is “an establishment of religion,” then if I should put up a poster in my class room that says, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” does that mean I am practicing medicine without a license? One argument makes about as much sense as the other. “Establishment of religion” means an overt effort to indoctrinate, proseletyze, and require adherence to a particular set of religious beliefs. I see in her classroom that she has numerous posters on her display board. Are they all Christian messages or a variety of informational/motivational posters that are common in classrooms?
  
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- TheFederalist
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 6:14pm
  Usetptowipe;
  you are one percent wrong in your opinion. Re-educate yourself on the Constitution and about establishment of religion in the first amendment.
  
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- valiant1776
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 7:30pm
  So, what’s the name of this Establishment of Religion she created? If quoting a Bible verse is overtly “Christian” than that makes every inauguration in US history a Constitutional violation and our Government null and void ab initio.
  
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- grampdad
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 8:11pm
  it’s ok to teach buddhist, muslim, yoga, marxism, fornication, sodomy etc. but damn don’t teach the word no!
  
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- UseTP2wipe
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 11:36pm
  No sir, Higherroad-the Reagan quotation is not even the main thing that the Principal was concerned about. It was the Bible quotes and psalms that he was rightfully concerned about. Here, let me help you-a quote directly from this story: “Silver had four small posters in her room with psalm verses on them, a poster with a religious quotation from Ronald Reagan, a drawing that the district said is reference to the crucifixion, a poster that had a Bible verse superimposed on the American flag and school books, among other items.” Now, your analogy about the medical profession/practicing without a license? Oh geez….come on, that is just plain silly.
  To the Federalist: you’re reading what you want to read into the Constitution. If you want to understand it, read it for what it is not what you want it to be.
  To Grampdad: your comment: “it’s ok to teach buddhist, muslim, yoga, marxism, fornication, sodomy etc. but damn don’t teach the word no!” For one thing I would like to have some evidence of a public school that teaches these things. Fornication?! Sodomy?! Yoga? Now I can see teaching ABOUT different religions with no credence or favor given to any one religion, but it is obvious that Ms. Silver is pushing one religious belief…ie RESPECTING…..(get it?) the Protestant Christian belief. If she wants to do that, she can teach at a religious school or home school some youths whose parents would like a religious education, not at a public school.
  
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- HigherRoad
  Posted on January 14, 2013 at 11:42am
  @USETP2WIPE: Talk about silly, what’s with that moniker you are using? Obviously you understand the point of the “medical license” analogy, but for the sake of indulging your viewpoint , yes, that makes about as much sense as condemning the teacher for establishing a religion by having motivational posters in her room–albeit from Scripture or any other source. Is she requiring the students to memorize Scripture, quote Scripture, study Judao-Christian history? Of course not! You do understand, don’t you, that loss of freedoms affects everyone–including lame-brained progressives like yourself.
  
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HigherRoad
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:02pm
Most teachers put up posters with words of wisdom and encouragement for students. These obviously are drawn from diverse sources. From what I saw in the article, one poster said, “Be on guard, Stand true to what you believe, Be courageous. Be strong. And everything you do must be done in love.” The second was a quote from President Ronald Reagan. How is this offensive? Oh, I guess if she had been teaching the children to recite, “Barack Hussein Obama, Mmmmmm, Mmmmmmm, Mmmmmm,” that would have been great! According to Jamie Foxx, Barack Obama is “Our Lord and Savior.”

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:30pm
  yea, and you guys all said those liberal chants and whatnot should be banned in public schools….But then you think bible verses should be allowed?
  
  makes no sense
  
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- HigherRoad
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:35pm
  @Soybombs_305II: And she is requiring the children to chant the quotations on the posters?
  
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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 6:49pm
  indoctrination comes in many shapes and sizes
  
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ldomin
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:01pm
It’s about time we sue the hell out these hypocrites. Everybody seems to have the freedom to exercise their rights as long as it fits their leftist agenda. I am sick and tired of them targeting people of faith.

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Spitfire1938
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 5:01pm
None of the commenters posting here seem to understand: The US Constitution is Dead! There is NO Bill of Rights anymore! America is entering the last years (months?) of its existence in a supersonic free-fall.
There is NO money and the dollar is backed ONLY by the ability of its people to PRODUCE and the value of its natural resources. Production capacity is being destroyed and resources cut off! Substance has been replaced by AIR and the President is sucking that out of our lungs.
After the fall Foreigners will occupy the remaining shell to strip away our resources and colonize.
President Obama plans to then retire in undreamed of LUXURY… and no one will be talking about religion anymore!

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OHN
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:51pm
Go home BITC* and stay. THE KID’S DONT NEED YOU. WE NEED GOD PUT BACK IN OUR SCHOOL. YOU WHAT WRONG WITH OUR KID’S

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YOURSENSEI
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:50pm
This is what you must know:

Good riddance to this Christian terrorist.

It is so.

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denkat56
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:36pm
I wish I could help with money. Just remember, no viva larazza, no black heritage week, no Indian, Muslims teachings, no native American teachings, all this being said school should be pretty short this year. Maybe they can teach tolerance, patience, compassion. Who knows maybe even math and English, I’d say history, but you never know when religions head will pop up, like the crusades, Muslims, and Catholics, maybe even Mormonism. The roman empire and the Greeks mythology, Zeus and his group on Olympus. They all had gods good, bad or indifferent they had gods, not to forget the fore fathers and their religious beliefs. No Patton praying to god for the weather to clear in ww2 , no religion at all. No Japanese and their religion and their gods. As stated before pretty short school year.

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GUYFROMMAINE
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:33pm
Funny how the many other students didn’t have a problem with the posters. So because one student does not believe in God, that means the whole classroom and teacher has to acquiesce to this student? Apparently this teacher is not allowed the freedom to publicly express her beliefs.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:10pm
Freedom OF Religion!

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whater39
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:00pm
Keeping GOD out the class room.
Wasn’t this already decided? Why do silly people keep on trying to bring up already decided things?

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TIMEBOMB
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:17pm
My Marxist atheist regime will do everything in it’s power to remove the word God not only from schools but in society and once I have achieved that society will breakdown faster.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:14pm
Frankly, this country was founded and populated with Christian people from the beginning and was blessed for that reason. The first Christians tended to put God first in a lot of things and issues concerning the nation. This country has NOT gained one iota from “multiculturalism” or “diversity”; it has suffered for it. Those two ideas are impossible to live with. THey were made up in an office in he Kremlin in the cold-war days and are still being pushed today by leftist democrats. I mention these ridiculous Orwellian concepts because their prominence in Democrat thinking began the influx of other religions in this country. Have you ever heard ,”a housed divided against itself cannot stand”? Then why would some so-called Americans push the concept of ‘multiculturalism and diversity’ which flies in the face of common sense. It is pushed to destroy America.

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honeydijon13
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:10pm
A ‘public’ school mean children of MANY religions attend.
She was promoting ONE religion.
which is wrong – and she knows it.
Stop the silly twaddle. If you want your kids to have a religion-centered eduction
send them to private and parochial schools
and stop the childish ‘attack on christianity’ kvetching.
Isn’t life simple.

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- GUYFROMMAINE
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 4:47pm
  So she is not allowed to publicly express her belief? I thought we were allowed to do that. I missed the part that said she was forcing the children to believe what she did. Isn’t that what the Founders were trying to prevent in the whole freedom of religion thing?
  
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gunslingerpatriot
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:10pm
I think its a great idea that she needs to remove her Christian literature, as soon as the school district applies this same standard to every other religious belief system by removing the muslim prayer rooms, denying muslims students praying during thier instructional class time, and removing any reasonable accomdation they make for the non-Christian faith groups first.

Until that happens, her First Amendment rights are being violated.

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Southerner01
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:04pm
The first amendment does not prohibit EMPLOYERS from limiting the speech of employees at work. I could not work for a restaurant and tell the customers the food was crap. Ford employees don’t have the right to post the Mother Jones article about the Pinto in their offices.

This would only be a first amendment issue if the school district told her she could not have bible verses on her facebook page, or could not participate in a community bible study on her own time, or was not allowed to have a fish on the trunk of her car. Courts have consistently found that the employment relationship creates limits to your rights. The classroom is school property, not hers, and she is on the clock. She is an agent of the school and must follow their policies.

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Need to be FREE
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:57pm
It is about time the fight goes to them. Have been quite to long!!

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pma_guy
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:53pm
I’m exercising my freedom of speech by sharing Dennis Kane’s phone # 716-686-3606. Talk to Mary Ann, his secretary. Or you can email him at the website http://www.cheektowagacentral.org/contact.cfm

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Priscilla King
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:49pm
Yes, Soybomb, the teacher is an employee of the government. But the government is supposed to protect her right to practice her religion, not other people’s right to be insulated from knowing about her religion.

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- Southerner01
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 3:16pm
  A waiter at an Outback Steakhouse who was Hindu would not be allowed to wear a meat is murder shirt, nor lecture the patrons on the holiness of cows. The first Amendment does not afford you the right to proselytize at work.
  
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demsrtraitors
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:45pm
liberals have no problem with you if you believe Nobama is your black God and you obey him

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HigherRoad
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:44pm
Prior to 1833 when the McGuffey Readers were introduced, reading instruction in schools was primarily from the Bible. The McGuffey Readers themselves contained many Bible stories and verses. Our children would do well to read and write as well as children from this era. We have “dumbed down” education to such an extent that most children of today are essentially illiterate. I remember reading the Book of Ruth from the Bible in 5th grade as literature. Encouraging children to be respectful and obedient is not against the law. What is unlawful is depriving citizens of their Constitutional rights.

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Zeus is THE Lord
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:43pm
Hey lady, if you want to teach your brand of voodoo, there are private schools for that nonsense…

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woodyee
Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:39pm
If the Left, the DemonicRat Party, and the “freedom FROM Religion” had their way, both Jesus and Martin Luther King would be banned.

In fact, EVERYone and EVERYthing even REMOTELY tied to religion would be abolished…erahhhh, unless of course, it’s Islam or Muslim related…

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- Zeus is THE Lord
  Posted on January 13, 2013 at 2:50pm
  You’re in rare form, aren’t you? Must be a good batch of moonshine today…
  
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