The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to review the case of a high school student in Maryland who, despite threats of receiving a failing grade, refused to deny her faith by making a written profession of the Muslim conversion prayer.
Caleigh Wood, a Christian 11th-grade public school student in Maryland, was also forced to view a series of PowerPoint slides that stated, among other things, most Muslims’ faith is stronger than that of the average Christian.
“When her father found out about the assignments that she had, he immediately called the school and asked that she be given an alternative assignment or be able to opt-out,” says Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of Thomas More Law Center. “The school refused his request and said if she did not complete those assignments, she would get a failing grade.”
Wood later refused to complete the assignment and, as a result, did receive a failing grade.
Thompson, Richard (TMLC) “We filed a lawsuit in federal court against the teachers who are involved in the Islamic proselytization and we went to district court and then the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,” says Thompson. “In both of those courts, even though they recognized that what the school was forcing her to do was problematic, they refused to hold that it violated the establishment clause or the First Amendment free speech clause.”
The TMLC attorney calls it a double standard, arguing that schools would not dare force a Muslim student to write The Lord’s Prayer or profess John 3:16.
“What has happened is that many schools are becoming hotbeds of Islamic propaganda where the school is teaching the religion of Islam far beyond a basic history lesson, and because Muslim activists have been very clear about propagandizing teachers as well as students, they have become emboldened and the schools are now bending over backwards to promote Islam while at the same time denigrating Christianity.”
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to review the case, passing up what Thompson describes as “an opportunity to provide clearer constitutional guidance” on an important issue.
“This issue isn’t going to go away,” he continues. “We have other cases right now where we are challenging school districts where seventh-graders are being taught that the only true faith is Islam. They’re also being taught the five pillars of the Islamic faith, the Shahada.”
Written by Chris Woodward for ONE News NOW ~ October 16, 2019