Thamks to and . I bring you .
Two Jewish families who sued a Delaware school district for unconstitutionally sponsoring religion announced today that they have reached a negotiated settlement with the district. The settlement will require the Indian River School District, which spreads over a large part of southeast Delaware, to implement new policies regarding religion. It also provides compensation to the two families, whose children suffered religious discrimination.
The lawsuit grew out of a series of incidents in which the district fostered Christianity and imposed it on children in the schools, including the Dobrich and Doe children. The culmination of these incidents came at the end of the school year in 2004.
First, during a 2004 high school graduation ceremony, a pastor invited by the school board singled out Samantha Dobrich, the sole Jewish graduate. According to the complaint filed in the case, the pastor singled out Samantha in his invocation: "I also pray for one specific student, that You be with her and guide her in the path that You have for her. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake."
Even worse than the ruined graduation was the community's hostile response when the Dobrich family sought to raise their concerns about the graduation and the pastor's role in it. According to the lawsuit, the Dobrich family became the focus of public hostility, including telephoned threats. Samantha's younger brother Alexander's classmates began calling him "Jew boy" and accused him of "killing Christ." He became fearful about wearing his yarmulke.
In August 2004, the Indian River school board responded to the Dobrich family by scheduling a discussion of the graduation. During that meeting, though, the board allowed a mob to verbally assault the Dobriches and a handful of others who spoke in support of pluralism and church-state separation.
Jane Doe said that, with some community members making statements such as "a prayer isn’t worth anything if it isn’t a prayer to Jesus Christ," she felt that Judaism itself was also under attack.
It took courage to attend that school board meeting, Doe said. It was daunting simply to pass through the hostile mob turned out by local churches and the local talk radio station in support of prayer in the schools.
Religion in schools, belief that your religion is the only was to salvation, blaming an entire people for the death of a man (who may nit have existed and the bible says was killed by the Romans), whats the harm? Oppression and discrimination of innocent people.
