Prayer Mural In Rhode Island School Must Be Removed, Federal Judge Orders

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal judge has ordered the immediate removal of a prayer mural displayed in the auditorium of a Rhode Island public high school.

Teenage atheist student Jessica Ahlquist had sued Cranston city and Cranston High School West officials, demanding they remove the banner because it promotes a religion. She calls it offensive to non-Christians.

City officials claimed the mural is a historical artifact from the school's early days and serves no religious purpose. The prayer encourages students to strive academically. It begins with the words "Our Heavenly Father" and ends with "Amen."

A senior U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday ruled in the atheist student's favor.

The student has 20 days to file counsel fees and costs. City officials will have 10 days to respond. The court will enter judgment after these issues are resolved.

Earlier on HuffPost:

• Jessica Ahlquist, Rhode Island Student, Confident Her Side Is 'Very Strong' In School Prayer Mural Suit

Comments

[guinness69]

10:32 AM on 02/19/2012

the real question is, how did the banner get put up in the first place? all of you who tout " seperation of church and state" that concept was in our constitution long before the school was built.

[Tenacious B 73]

05:49 PM on 01/26/2012

guthrum, "How about the rights of Christians­?"...well, they're the same as everyone else's. Always have been and will remain so. Surely you're not arguing for Christian privilege, are you?

The ONLY two possible solutions are 1) allow ALL views to be welcome on that wall, or 2) allow NONE at all. Either is fair and I can support either. Though I *prefer* none at all, because the other option turns government institutions into a tacky battleground of opinions and I prefer our government institutions remain dignified and focused on their intended purpose.

Anything other than one of those two solutions is patently unfair and unconstitutional. We should seek to correct existing violations held over from another time to move forward as a people/country...which is exactly what Jessica did.

Whatever else in the mix that offends you or anyone else (judge, falcons, etc.) has no bearing here. It's about constitutional religious equality in government venues. You/we don't have the right not to be offended, and the school (government) doesn't have the right to endorse, even passively, a religious sentiment that doesn't represent everyone. And as far as I know, there IS no religious sentiment that can possibly represent everyone, so it should be avoided altogether by our government. The school (government) must remain secular, or nuetral. The PEOPLE, as individuals, still have all the religious freedom they've always had, and always will have.

[guthrum]

01:38 PM on 01/28/2012

Have you read what is on our currency? How about the pledge?

[Tenacious B 73]

01:46 PM on 01/28/2012

I'm so glad you asked. Both of those mentions of god were added unconstitutionally to our currency and pledge in the mid 1900s is the wake of McCarthyism and anti-communist hysteria. Those should be removed, too. The original pledge and currency did not mention god.

And today those two examples are being wrongly used by people like you to say "see?? we WERE founded as a christian (theist) nation!". We were not. They are christian trojan horses that should have never been let inside the gate.

[guthrum]

07:23 PM on 01/22/2012

For pete's sake: harassment? how? From a banner? Give me a break! How about the rights of Christians? Where are our rights? I am offended by this judge. I am offended and hurt by the banner that shows the school mascot - a falcon: disrespectful to animals. How about the rights of falcons?
I really doubt that the students ever paid any attention to that banner any more than they read posted rules or multiplication facts posters; until this action brought attention to it.

[The Forgotten Man]

06:44 PM on 01/14/2012

Solution: Change the words from 'School Prayer' to "SCHOOL MOTTO" and remove the words: 'Dear Heavenly Father" and 'AMEN"- That's it! Problem Solved!

[Conuly]

11:48 AM on 01/17/2012

Whom are you asking, then, to "grant" you things?

[The Forgotten Man]

01:07 PM on 01/17/2012

Conuly, It is my belief, that comprise is a better solution to conflict than the ‘all or nothing’ approach that this judgment has demanded. Comprise, is a diplomatic concept that enables us to view, accept, and understand each others view, while the later succeeds in alienating one for the purpose of the other, which in turn creates resentment.
In the interest of diplomacy, as for the word "grant," for which you have offense, I shall offer a compromise. Scratch “Grant us” and replace with: “Approach each Day with…”
How does that work?

[Dan Jighter]

08:45 AM on 01/14/2012

"City officials claimed the mural is a historical artifact from the school's early days and serves no religious purpose. ... It begins with the words "Our Heavenly Father" and ends with "Amen.""

'Nough said.

Jessica Ahlquist, I doubt you will ever read this, but if you do please know you did the right thing. Good for you. I've proud of you.

To the Christians harassing atheists, in particular Jessica Ahlquist, how dare you?! She's right, you're wrong, get over it. Atheists like myself will remember incidents like this insist on respect for Christianity (but not atheism) and suggest there is no such thing as intolerance of atheism. How dare you harass a young lady, especially when she is right, like this. Back off!

[J R M]

07:06 PM on 01/13/2012

The government (which includes the public schools) has to stay independent of all religion. Prayer murals belong in religious environments, not public ones - even if ALL the students and staff are believers.

[jlf2033]

06:43 PM on 01/13/2012

Good. This stuff belongs in a church. Not a public school.

[A Dub]

01:52 PM on 01/13/2012

You can believe or you can not believe either is ok. Prayers or religious icons should not be displayed on public school property.

[Quislet]

01:05 PM on 01/13/2012

Before you go calling Ms. Ahlquist names, ask yourself if that is what Jesus would do. And remeber what the prayer said? “Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,” If the prayer is so important to you, tke it to heart.

It is ashame that there has been so much harassment and threats made towards Ms. Ahlquist.

http://www.rifuture.org/girl-at-the-center-of-the-cranston-prayer-banner-case-targeted-by-cyber-bullies.html

[A Dub]

01:53 PM on 01/13/2012

Why would I call her names. She was right to complain. Religion does not belong in public schools.

[Quislet]

03:39 PM on 01/13/2012

Read some of the comments here on this article and you will see a bunch of people calling her names and denigrating her character.

[SoCalifTeacher]

07:19 AM on 01/13/2012

Jessica is very intolerant. What about diversity? The PC crowd just keeps getting meaner. She is such a hater.

[UnderTheHedgeWeGo]

10:06 AM on 01/13/2012

You're a teacher and you don't understand the 1st Amendment? Shame on you.

[Quislet]

01:08 PM on 01/13/2012

I have met Ms. Ahlquist and she is no hater. Although it would be very understandable if she hated the people calling her names and harassing her.

I think you owe her an apology. It would be the Christian thing to do.

[Dan Jighter]

09:33 AM on 01/14/2012

"I have met Ms. Ahlquist"

Can you tell her that some of us are proud of her and regard her as a hero and are glad she did the right thing?

[Madim]

08:32 AM on 01/13/2012

Hitler was not an atheist, and didn't promote atheism. Check your facts. The top of your list is embarrassingly wrong. so what should we think about the rest ?

[UnderTheHedgeWeGo]

10:09 AM on 01/13/2012

And regardless of what Hitler was, his followers, tho ones who did all the killing, were over overwhelmingly Lutheran.

[UnderTheHedgeWeGo]

10:12 AM on 01/13/2012

What all those people have in common is not that they are atheist but that they are authoritarian despots. Their religion was the State and a personality cult. Nothing they did was done in the name of atheism.

[Atheism and racism]

12:38 AM on 01/13/2012

"The leader of Germany is an evolutionist, not only in theory, but, as millions know to their cost, in the rigor of its practice. For him, the 'national front' of Europe is also the 'evolutionary front;' he regards himself, and is regarded, as the incarnation of the will of Germany, the purpose of that will being to guide the evolutionary destiny of its people." "Christianity makes no distinction of race or of color; it seeks to break down all racial barriers. In this respect the hand of Christianity is against that of Nature, for are not the races of mankind the evolutionary harvest which Nature has toiled through long ages to produce?" Sir Arthur Keith, Evolutionist, Anthropologist

[Atheism and racism]

12:36 AM on 01/13/2012

Freedom from Racism

"We were victims of a cruel social ideology that assumes that competition among individuals, classes, nations or races is the natural condition of life, and that it is also natural for the superior to dispossess the inferior . . . . The law of natural selection is not, I will maintain, science. It is an ideology, and a wicked one. . ."
Kenneth J. Hsu, "Is Darwinism Science?" Earthwatch (March 1989)

Hsu is Earth Science Head at the Swiss Institute of Earth Sciences

Acts 17
And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation

[A Dub]

01:56 PM on 01/13/2012

It really doesn't matter. Religion does not belong in a public school.

[A Dub]

01:57 PM on 01/13/2012

We have freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Religion does not belong in public schools.

[Conuly]

05:07 PM on 01/13/2012

Dude, we can quote a zillion Christians making your whole religion look bad, but we'll try to refrain.