I’ve frequently said that government school officials are woefully ignorant about the First Amendment, and that their zealotry allows Christian conservatives to portray themselves as a persecuted minority—something they most certainly are not; but that image is very politically useful to them.
A school principal in Cupertino has prohibited a teacher from distributing the Declaration of Independence because it mentions the “Creator” and “Divine Providence.” (Saw it on Claremont’s blog). Now the news story leads me to believe that the teacher is probably one of these crusading Christian teachers who sees the classroom as an opportunity to preach—but distributing the Declaration of Independence in itself is not preaching, and is not a violation of the Establishment Clause. It’s hard to tell without more details, but the principal’s decision does seem pretty absurd.
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