Look, I get that a lot of people on this forum maybe weren't old enough to have gone to school back when prayers did occur in school (US, and I mean secular schools, not religious schools). The thing is, it didn't mean "all prayer" it meant "the only right-thinking prayer, Christian of course!" We've had "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance (yep, we mutilated our national pledge because it failed to acknowledge god and our government's subservience to him) and every candidate for any political office of any consequence is suddenly expected to go to church, and not just any church, we all know how it turns out if you dare be Muslim, you must verbally reject that and be Christian.

Maybe you could take a moment and realize it is kind of bullshit to force religion, especially a specific type of religion, on people while they try to interact with their government. And despite the persecution complex so many Christians have, it's them doing a lot of the forcing (in the US at least).

All the city had to do, as MonstaMunch said, is realize that there's a fuckton of legal precedent on her side and to man up and remove it. It's not an appropriate place for it, we've already decided that as a nation.

EDIT: I love how she's being ridiculed by both her classmates and several people here for actually being one of the few kids in the public school system who fucking learned something at school and applied it by pointing out the school's hypocrisy.

EDIT EDIT: And yes, for the record, if I wasn't clear, I went through part of my schooling when school prayer was both allowed and there was "prayer time" right in the fucking middle of class.

This doesn't make me angry at all. Yeah it's a bit petty to get so worked up over a banner, but it's nice to see the minority win for once.

It wasn't "the atheists" who did this, it was a 16 year old girl who did something about the situation in her own high school.

What's more the people acting poorly in this matter is not the 16 year old girl, if the news story is even half accurate.

Uh, yeah, I think it's fine if a Muslim wants to put up a prayer rug or something in school. If they had a christian prayer banner, then I have no problem with them putting up other religious items. This is a large country, and like it or not, you are going to meet people with differing faiths. Is she going to cry like a baby and run to the ACLU's tit every time she sees a cross or crescent in a public space, or every time someone kneels by their locker to say a quick prayer? That's what I mean by suck it up. I don't care what the damn constitution or legal precedent says, anyone with an ounce of common sense would just leave the prayer banner (however stupid and misguided) alone and not turn it into some self righteous legal battle that hurts everyone involved. I hate people who put the constitution and "rights" above common sense and health. But that's another issue.

Oh, they tried to make it a mandatory class for primary school students around here, so that the kids could learn about the love of Jesus that is all so wonderful, and sweet, and ... fuck it that's enough :D. Why the fuck would a 10 year old kid need to learn about some crap some dude two freaking thousand years ago wrote just to have fun with those near him, instead of spending that time doing more math, physics, chemistry, something that is ACTUALLY useful for his life?

But it got rejected in the main court, yet funny how the older people actually wanted kids to learn about that crap.

Seriously Orcishgamer, calm the hell down. No one here, not even me, said that public prayer was a good idea. What I'm saying is that a completely harmless prayer banner was blown way out of proportion by a girl who clearly has a superiority complex about her beliefs. A little common sense applied here would have eliminated any problem. Your rant just makes you sound as bitter and anti religious as her.

<.<

Sorry but the city is more responsible for turning it into a legal battle. They could've done the common sense thing and took it down.

I'm all for people working things out amongst themselves to find solutions that everyone can live with and be happy with, but when that isn't possible, we have the law. The law is clearly on her side and the city, not her, deserve the blame for taking it to court and wasting public money on a case that was doomed to fail.

In general, people lose most of their common sense when religion is involved. And yes, before everyone starts stomping on me, I'm referring to both Christians AND Atheists. I wish people would put away their fucking pitchforks and stop letting dogma guide them, because the constant demonizing and hyperbole that goes on is pathetic.

Indeed. Too bad the school district and the city didn't show any.

I've said it before, in class even: when it comes to someone's well being and very life vs. the constitution, screw the constitution. Do what's best for the people involved. This isn't a very good example of my philosophy there, but it still sort of fits. It honestly baffles me how libertarians and many people in government act like the constitution is God, and how it doesn't change at all. Its a 200 year old piece of parchment, and it can be modified or changed to suite the situation.

That is somewhat true, but note that it is actually the people who believe who are forcing their beliefs upon people, not those that don't believe.

You don't see churches and crap built by people who don't believe so that they could share the unbelief, so in a way, we at least have a case to be a bit angry about the whole religion crap.

Honestly, I'm going to have to side with you. Although the degree to which "separation of church and state" is enforced can sometimes tend towards the draconian in some areas, the fact of the matter is that it has at this point effectively become law, and the city really shouldn't have continued to fight in court. Or even fought in the first place.