SCHOOL BANS FIFTH GRADER FROM PUBLIC SPEECH COMPETITION BECAUSE HIS SPEECH IS ABOUT RELIGION — STUDENT TOLD TO “TAKE THE RELIGION OUT” OR DON’T COMPETE

Apparently, it’s not just institutions of “higher” learning that, although publicly claiming to exalt the robust exchange of ideas, actually seek to quash free expression if it embraces religion or, for that matter, endorses anything that might be considered not ”politically correct.”

According to this article, when the fifth grader’s parents protested, the school postponed the competition “until parents signed permission slips allowing their children to hear the speeches,” because a speech about religion “is not appropriate for fourth- and fifth-graders.”

Yeah, right.  I wonder what part was “inappropriate” in their minds.  Maybe it was the part where the fifth-grader talked about how “religion provides moral guidance for most of the 7 billion people on the Earth”?  Perhaps it was when he said, “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you,” and that “[t]his world would be a better place if everybody followed that rule.”

This school’s actions have abased, not venerated, our Constitution.  What message do they think this sends to the children they are supposed to be teaching?   What a disgrace.