9/21/05
THE OMAHA CONNECTION TO
‘SEE YOU AT THE POLE'
Today's the day students around the country come to school a
little early and gather at the flagpole outside the school building to pray and
praise a little bit before the schoolbell rings. You can read more about "See
You At the Pole" on www.syatp.org
Each year, people complain that this violates the mythical
"separation of church and state." To learn more about how this event is
perfectly within constitutional protections for religious liberty, see the
Alliance Defense Fund memo, www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SYATP_ADF_MEmo_2005.pdf
There's an Omaha connection to this event. A student at Omaha
Westside High School named Brigid Mergens wanted to start an after-school Bible
club and use school property as a meeting place the way other clubs do. School
officials wouldn't let her, claiming it would look like the school was
endorsing Bible study. She sued, and of course, she won, since she merely
wanted to exercise her right to religious expression guaranteed by the First
Amendment. As long as the club didn't disrupt the school day, which of course
it didn't, it was A-OK.
But the Westside officials fought her all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court, where again, she won. Now the principles established in the
Mergens case guide school religious
liberty situations all around the country, and that's a good thing.
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9/21/05
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