Mason Meyer
Ms. Ewald & Miss Arends
English I, Period 1
May 22, 2014
Do our schools violate the 1st Amendment?
Imagine going into a place and not being able to talk about what you want to say. In example, a boy in a public school in Mississippi signed up for a talent show. The day came for the show and he got up on stage and sang Matt Redman’s, “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord).”
This song was bringing a lot of debate and controversy to the staff and students. While he was singing this song, the principal turned of the microphone and walked up to him and told he he can’t sing that song and he needed to go sit down. The next day a group of students all wore cross necklaces to school to back this kid up. In some public schools, this is a major concern. For instance, children are getting in trouble because they talk about religion and try to make God apart of their study. This is wrong because kids should be able to talk about their beliefs. In other words, public schools should allow children to talk about religion in the classroom.
Bringing God into school is a great idea, but others may not agree with me. Cheerleaders at LakeviewFort Oglethorpe High School in north Georgia had an unusual way of kicking off football games: They would set up huge paper banners on the edge of the field for players to crash through banners embossed with Christian proselytizing messages and Bible passages. This started bringing up major concerns with the members of the community and the staff was not going to tolerate this. Rob Boston, the author of the article states, “When a local resident pointed out that perhaps this raised legal issues, school officials reluctantly said they would put a stop to
Meyer 2 it immediately sparking the wrath of some in the community”. The community got mad at the school officials because they made the cheerleaders stop praying before football games. School officials can put a stop to things kids