Religious valedictorian sues Nevada school

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

A high school valedictorian who had the plug pulled on her microphone as she gave an address referring to Jesus Christ has filed a lawsuit against school officials, claiming her rights to religious freedom and free speech were trampled.

Brittany McComb, 18, said she was giving her June 15 commencement address to some 400 graduates of Foothill High School and their family members when the sound was cut.

"God's love is so great that he gave his only son up," she said, before the microphone went dead. She continued without amplification, "...to an excruciating death on a cross so his blood would cover all our shortcomings and provide for us a way to heaven in accepting this grace."

And

School District lawyer Bill Hoffman has said previously that the school was following 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that have obligated districts to censor student speeches for proselytizing.

Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the school appropriately followed the appeals court's decisions.

"Proselytizing is improper in school-sponsored speech at valedictorian graduations," he said, adding the ACLU had sued in the past to ensure proselytizing was prevented at school-sponsored events.

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I'm unfamiliar with these 9th Circuit rulings, but I think I should probably study up on them if my habitual laziness can be temporarily overcome: you see, I just don't get it. As longtime Real Art readers know, I'm no friend to Christianity, but I am fiercely devoted to the first amendment, and my understanding of what is probably the most important part of the Bill of Rights is that, as long as students aren't proxies for teachers or administrators, their freedoms of speech and worship are absolute.

That is, how can being a valedictorian make you a government official? It's the schools, not the students, who need to keep their mouths shut about religion. It has long been understood that the schools, which are organs of government, cannot proselytize in any way because that would be the legal equivalent of the government establishing a religion, which is unconstitutional; students, because they are in no way employed by the schools, are essentially incapable of violating the law in this way, unless, of course, they are in cahoots with school officials, say, plotting to sneak in some Christian prayer to a school-sponsored event, but calling it "student initiated," when it clearly is not. It pretty much looks as though this girl was not in cahoots with the school. Consequently, she should have been able to talk about her faith in Jesus as much as she wanted--conversely, if she was an atheist or Satanist, the same rules apply; these are her rights.

As the old saying goes, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I think this whole neo-Jesus movement is totally fucking stupid, but it really pisses me off that the powers-that-be have effectively shut this girl down, and I am genuinely confused and terribly disturbed that this 9th Circuit ruling appears to support this heinous violation of her, and ultimately my and your, freedoms of speech and worship or non-worship. Ultimately, in addition to being yet another erosion of our civil liberties, all this does is add fuel to the flames of the culture war by lending credibility to the bogus notion that the "godless liberals" are overreacting, and that the best way to respond is by returning god to the schools--they're creating martyrs, for god's sake.

I'm also pissed off that circumstances have forced me to defend a stupid fundamentalist.

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