Las Vegas Sun

November 28, 2009

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Letter: Public school is no place for religion

Tuesday, July 4, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Regarding Timothy R. Carroll's July 1 letter, over which the Las Vegas Sun newspaper applied the headline, "Free speech applies to Christians, too": Of course it does.

But why is it so difficult for people like Mr. Carroll to see the difference between state censorship and the need for a school to regulate the expressions of students at a school function?

I'm certain that there are many other expressions that would meet with the disapproval of a public school faculty. In this case, the line between "freedom of speech" and inappropriate proselytizing was most definitely crossed. The school was perfectly within its rights and duties to do what it did.

Mr. Carroll's solution to the problem is something I agree with wholeheartedly, however. If parents want their kids to be proselytized during school hours, then go ahead and send them to private schools.

Finally, Mr. Carroll criticized letter writer Mel Lipman, president of the American Humanist Association, for somehow trying to change our educational system to eliminate religion. Well, Mr. Lipman's is not a "new version" of American public education. There were no crucifixes on the walls of the public schools that I attended as a child in the '50s. There never were, and I hope there never will be.

Robert L. Hannah, Henderson

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