School Overacted

[lizbud]

I couldn't believe how this school overacted to this boys drawing.
What do you think?

http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article...ucifix_drawing

[Taz_Zoee]

I think schools (and just people in general sometimes) over react to things like this. The boy is 8 years old for goodness sake!!! He was asked to draw something and then gets in trouble for it.

[phesina]

I especially like this bit:

---->
Superintendent Julie Hackett said she could not discuss an individual student and did not address the drawing specifically or the teacher's reaction to it, but did say the school has safety protocols in place that were followed.
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SAFETY protocols? What on earth did she think she was keeping (him? the other students? herself?) safe from?

What utter nonsense. The boy had just been to visit the shrine with figures of Jesus all over the place, and he no doubt knows that Christmas is the day Jesus was born. So he's asked to draw something that reminds him of the holiday, and he draws Jesus! And this is symptomatic of psychological disorder? Such that he is now excluded from the other kids?

[momcat]

This PC nonsense has gone way too far! Who did this kid offend? Who did he put in danger? What does "safety protocol" have to do with this? The teacher told the kids to draw something, apparently teacher didn't tell them what to draw. But it doesn't matter, this school, like too many others, go out of their way to find something offensive in everything.

[Karen]

It's just silly. The La Sallette lights are so pretty, and must have seemed magical for a child. And all Catholic children know that Jesus died on the cross, and I am betting he has been to Cathechism. And even if he's not Catholic, the La Sallette shrine is, so there's plenty of religious imagery.

[sparks19]

Yep it's totally ridiculous. That kid didn't put ANYONE in danger but they have totally hurt that child but they don't seem to care. "we have to think about the children" what about THAT child?

[Lady's Human]

It's not just freedom OF religion.....it's freedom FROM religion.

Lines right up with the school district in CT which the official greeting during the holidays is "Happy winter"

[Freedom]

Overreacting? Understatement!

[Alysser]

Schools overreacting? NEVER! I thought my school was bad. My teacher got warned for allowing us to watch FREE WILLY last year, FREE WILLY, because there was a "harpoon" in it or something dumb. We're not allowed to wear hats in school. A girl also got in trouble for bringing in a hair straightner, it's dangerous apparently, uhh what? I might as well not breathe while I'm at it.

That's absolutely ridiculious. I am not a religious person, but if his family is that's their choice. He did the assignment in a way he saw fit, there's nothing wrong with it. A physcological evaluation??? What in the hell is wrong with these people. If I were those parents I'd transfer my kid so he didn't have to deal with that BS ever again. Wow.

[Taz_Zoee]

I was just showing this to Bruce and while we were discussing it I was reading the article again. My question is why was the teacher asking them to draw something about "the holiday"? Isn't that incorrect too? I thought you weren't supposed to single out Christmas or whatever. Ugh, it's just all so dumb.

[Freedom]

Update:

This is all over the news here ( it is local, for me).

Now the school claims:
- that is NOT the picture which was at issue
- the school did NOT ask the child to draw a Christmas pic
- the picture in question was NOT even drawn at school but was brought in by the child
- the child was NOT suspended


And on and on.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/bre..._abel_g_6.html

[sparks19]

so what WAS the issue then? and so WHAT if the child brought the picture in from home. It's not like he brougth in a weapon. it's a freaking PICTURE.

Sounds like they are trying to tap dance their way out of this one

[smokey the elder]

This whole kerfuffle about when and where religious expression is appropriate is, IMO, a manifestation of the increasing religious diversity in the US. When I was in school quite a few years ago, much of the US was religiously very homogeneous. "Diversity" was Catholic or Protestant. Christmas carols and Bible stories in school were not uncommon, and no one thought anything of it that I know about. Is that right or wrong?

I would hazard that in this day and age with religious diversity it might be appropriate to discuss (in a class called "Comparative Religions", say) the differences among cultures how their religions work, what holidays they celebrate, etc. The big problem seems to be fear: i.e. if one religion is discussed, does it "invalidate" all others?

[Grace]

Oh boy - the last 2 paragraphs in that article . . . . . . .

Amid the flurry of media attention, the boy's father held court today at his girlfriend's apartment here, demanding the school district compensate him for his family's pain and suffering.

"It hurts me that they did this to my kid," Chester Johnson, the boy's father, told the Globe. "They can't mess with our religion; they owe us a small lump sum for this.''

[JenBKR]

Grace - they had me until those paragraphs you posted. Now it seems a little fishy to me. If it happened as the boy and his father said it did, the school most certainly overreacted. However, now I have to wonder if it was all a strange money making scheme....very odd.

Off topic a bit, but the whole Christmas/holiday thing is so far out of control. I have much more I want to say on this topic but Idon't want to hijack the thread, so I'll start a new one.