Katy parents obtain restraining order

[Judi Lynn]

Feb. 14, 2006, 2:25AM
Katy parents obtain restraining order
It will let pupils give out religious valentines without interference from the school district


By ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle



Gary Fountain : For the Chronicle
Hearts and religion — Cynthia Gualy,
with daughter Sarah, and other parents won
a restraining order allowing Katy ISD pupils
to give religious-themed valentines.

A group of parents in the Katy Independent School District obtained a restraining order Monday preventing the district from interfering today with pupils handing out valentines with religious themes.

But Katy spokeswoman Kris Taylor said the district has no rules forbidding a child from handing out a religious valentine to another student. "This restraining order is telling us not to do things we don't do anyway," Taylor said Monday.

The restraining order was the opening move in a lawsuit filed Monday in the 133rd District Court of Harris County claiming Katy ISD teachers and administrators at Pattison Elementary School censored children and discriminated against them for expressing Christian viewpoints.
(snip)

"At no time has it been the official policy of Katy ISD to suppress a student's right of freedom of speech or religious expression, nor has it ever been the intent of the district to suppress such expression," Taylor said.
(snip)

"We wanted to make sure that the kids knew that they were not going to be called down, that they were not going to be belittled," said Kelly Shackelford.
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3657253.html

[REP]

1. Oh For Fuck's Sake

Yes, the big bad system is going to smack the Jesus hearts out of the widdle precious hands. Jesus wept.

[redwitch]

2. War on Valentine's Day?

These people just don't give up. It's mighty annoying.

[donsu]

31. ditto - stupid religious insanity

nt

[Scooter24]

3. Wouldn't it be funny

if kids were to bring home valentines with pagan messages and symbols in them?

Or maybe an atheist message?

It'll be a rude awakening for those parents when Free Speech doesn't quite go their way.

[REP]

4. Better Yet - Christian Messages They Don't Like

You know - Satan and Hell and all those other lovely Christian things that Pagans (and Jews and others) don't believe in.

[niallmac]

12. That was my first thought.

"Be my valentine.
You are special.
There is no god.
Work it out."
:loveya:


I'll see if Hallmark is interested.

[mikeytherat]

27. I love that!

Alternately:

"Roses are red,
violets are blue,
there is no God;
deal with it."

mikey_the_rat

[Mabus]

38. another

"Roses are red
Violents are blue
Beware of religion
It will control you."

[imperialismispasse]

40. ..

:rofl:

[TechBear_Seattle]

28. If that were to happen

The religious nutters would start frothing about how Christians are being persecuted by secular society. :puke:

[Tesha]

34. I think religious cards should show the severed head(s) of Saint Valentine

I think religious cards should show the severed head(s) of Saint(s)
Valentine.

After all, *THAT* is the true religious meaning of the holiday;
it celebrates (at least one of three guys named Valentine) who
were each martyred in the name of their religion. So don't we
want cards that are historically accurate?

Saint Valentine is also remembered as the patron saint of
(among other things) plague. What a guy!

Or we could go back even further to the earlier Roman
holiday of Lupercalia (which the Christians "converted"
to Saint Valentine's Day)! Like they say, give me that *OLD
TIME* religion!

Tesha

[slide to the left]

36. if i were a parent

I would have my kid hand out Muslim Valentines, even if I had to make them myself.

[Hekate]

5. Telling them not to do what they already don't do -- f'cryin' out loud

These "Christians" are pushing the envelope again -- the envelope of my tolerance for BS. :argh:

Hekate

> But Katy spokeswoman Kris Taylor said the district has no rules
> forbidding a child from handing out a religious valentine...
> "This restraining order is telling us not to do things we don't do
> anyway," Taylor said Monday.

[Binka]

6. OKIE DOKIE How About Vulgar Valentines? Wouldn't That Be Special?

FUCK YOU BE MINE

SUCK MY TOE VALENTINE

EAT MY HONEY POT HONEY


These self righteous sanctimonious mother fuckers are quite tedious.

[DRoseDARs]

7. "Roses are red, violets are blue...

...turn around bitch, I've got a use for you." -- Guns'N'Roses

[Binka]

8. LOL!

Love it!

[leftchick]

10. LOL!

:)

[Mnemosyne]

17. Oh gawd!

:rofl:

[ET Awful]

9. Or we could combine the two . . .

Sleep with me tonight, for tomorrow
you get stoned to death as instructed by our lord!

[tkmorris]

47. OH man LOL

That one made me laugh. Good good stuff. :)

[Mnemosyne]

16. There's employment in the greeting card industry

for you Binka!

Aren't they enough to make you :puke:

It's become so asinine I want to slap the shit out of the next whiner I hear, and I'm a pacifist!

I had a vulgar one but decided not to post it. :evilgrin:

[salin]

11. Shouldn't this be called a frivilous lawsuit?

Suing per things the school doesn't do in the first place? This is a stunt to keep the loony religious right stoked via talk radio and tv and convinced that there is indeed "Christian Persecution" - which they use as signs to point to this being the End Times (seriously this is the line on some religious radio)... which is used to keep folks opening their wallets to send in money. Such cheap exploitation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. Especially since they weren't denying this in the first place

Sanctimonious pricks filing frivolous lawsuits.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Maybe these Pauline Christians

should study early christian history? Then they wouldn't be so supportive of St. Valentine, since he was a gnostic and gnostics were deemed heretics by the Pauline Christians who took over christianity.

[JVS]

20. According to the Catholic encyclopedia there were 3 St. Valentines

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15254a.htm

I doubt that the one commemorated today by the RCC was the gnostic one

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. However only the gnostic was a bishop

and was a famous teacher. He would have been the most well know of the three and therefore more likely to be the one connected to St. Valentine's day.



The historical 2nd-century bishop Valentinus (died ca 153) is not venerated on any day of the Roman Catholic calendar, for his teachings were declared heretical and his works suppressed. Valentinus or Valentinius was the best known and for a time the most successful Christian Gnostic theologian, and a charismatic though divisive figure. Bands of his followers could still be found in the 5th century, when a more acceptable Valentinus was recollected and canonized.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine

[JVS]

25. www.atheism.com disagrees with your article

http://atheism.about.com/od/catholicsaints/p/SaintValentine.htm

First of all the most recent St. Valentine was a bishop "St. Valentine, Bishop of Terni:
A third and final Valentinius was the bishop of Interamna (modern day Terni) and he was also martyred, with his relics being taken back to Terni."

And as to the gnostic there is no mention of being a Bishop "Valentinus, Gnostic Teacher:
In 143, Valentinus was a Gnostic teacher in Rome. This Valentinus had nothing directly to do with the creation of Valentine’s Day and Gnosticism came to be regarded as a heresy, but there are some interesting parallels. Valentinus rejected asceticism and celibacy, arguing that marital love was central to Christianity."

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. Can't imagine why an atheist site

would want to disagree? :sarcasm:

[LizW]

14. Love people who use their kids for asinine publicity stunts

Poor little girl.

I wonder how this child's teachers feel about being accused of supressing the child's religious expression, especially since THEY WEREN'T DOING THAT?

I'm sure it makes them feel all warm and fuzzy toward this family who is suing the school district, forcing it to spend scarce funds in defense of a stupid, frivolous lawsuit.

[Mnemosyne]

18. Funny how the word asinine keeps coming up in relation to

to these morons. I used it in my post before I saw yours! lol :hi:

[no_hypocrisy]

15. Free speech remedy: Valentine's Day messages with

"I Love Separation of Church and State" passed out.

[JVS]

19. Well it is St. Valentine's day

[shugah]

21. that is true - and if the religious theme

of the cards was in keeping with the story of st valentine - performing illegal marriages because single men were to be sent to war - that would be educational too! think the religious cards they are passing out have anything to do with that? hmm... why do i doubt it?

[Bridget Burke]

22. This was mentioned on the morning news (KHOU Houston)

The suit was identified as allied with the ongoing "defense of Christmas"--with a bit of cynicism on the reporter's part. And the school district rep wished they'd been informed first. The suit is based on something that might happen--not something that actually did.

Here's the Liberty Legal Institute--group behind the suit. www.libertylegal.org/inthenews.htm

Gosh--LLI is the "legal arm" of the Free Market Foundation, part of Focus on the Family. www.freemarket.org/portal/index.php

This is a fake suit--filed only for publicity. By a group that supports tort reform & decries "frivolous" lawsuits, of course!

[tanyev]

23. Oh, yeah. Jesus was all about Valentine cards and chocolate.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. So the fundie parents filed a *pre-emptive* lawsuit to allow their kids

to do something that the school district wasn't planning to forbid anyway.

:crazy:

[Mabus]

39. They were inspired by *'s campaign to stop non-existent evil

wherever it doesn't exist

:banghead:

[Roland99]

30. $20 Sarah Gualy ends up pregnant and into drugs by age 16.

Overbearing parents push their rebelling teenagers to ever-increasing actions.

Seen happen a bazillion times.

[donheld]

32. Can the kids hand out Islamic Valentine cards?

:shrug:

[Redstone]

33. What the fuck is wrong with the JUDGE? Shouldn't he have thrown them out

of his courtroom, instead of granting a restraining order for something they didn't even do?

He should be removed from the bench.

Redstone

[Norquist Nemesis]

35. Wasting taxpayer dollars

Agreed. He should have tossed it.

[sakabatou]

37. Next up on Bill O'Reilly...

[Javaman]

41. Eiya, I was around during the holiday wars of ott 5 and ott 6...

those were some bad times indeed.
first it started with Christmas, then Valentines day, then Presidents day, don't even get me started with Flag day, that was a nightmare...

these people are morons.

[politicat]

42. Well... that's a kid likely to grow up to be a Goth and escape as

soon as possible.

Any parent that would use their child for such blatantly political ends doesn't deserve the child.

[mitchum]

43. Roses are red/Violets are blue/Jesus loves me/ But he sure hate you

according to their preachers

[superconnected]

44. insane people bringing up their insane kid.

If I was a parent in that school district I'd give my kid the new x box if he/she handed out witchcraft spells on valentines day cards for the kids to chant if anyone dangerous gets next to them. And give them free crystals and the meanings too.

And you know what, I'm a christian, a real one who doesn't practice witchcraft. But I see no problem with it, considering these idiots interpretation of Chrsitianity. I might even give the little red head girl a satan card - okay has nothing to do with witchcraft and it'd be addressed to her mommy. Something like thanks for the blasphemous work or smth.

[Hobarticus]

45. If we started throwing Christians to lions again, would they be satisfied?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Christian....but these folks are suffering from terminal Perpetual Victim Mentality. Symptoms include a desire to martyr oneself, like Christ, only to be frustrated by a fear of nails and blood.

[pschoeb]

46. Cool, so my Lupercalia cards should be ok

And if I hit my girlfriend in school today with my Februa (animal skin thong, origin of the month February) to increase her fertility and purify her, it's protected religious expression.

[dethl]

49. As long as a teacher isn't handing out the "religious" valentines....

then there's really nothing else the school district can do, and the district knows that. It's just more FUD on the "War against Christianity".

[distantearlywarning]

50. OMG!!! It's a War on Valentine's Day!!!

These parents clearly need someone out there in the media to cover up the fact that their children already have freedom of religion in their classrooms - this article is WAY too informative and might actually lead readers to believe that there is no need for hysteria or legal action in this situation. Paging Bill O'Reilly...Paging Bill O'Reilly...

[Timefortruth]

51. Satanic Valentines

Parents aren't allowed to bring religious books to read to the kindergartner's. It's time for some parent to bring a Satanic or other equally offensive book to school and read it to the kids.

Or how about Hanna has two Mommies, that would totally freak them out. All of a sudden regulation of what the children can bring will be demanded.

[HuffleClaw]

52. aaack

fundies using their children as pawns? bad parenting to say the least. i'd call it criminal.