PUNISHED FOR PRAYING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

I am going to tell you the story of a 9 year old girl named Samantha today.

She was in the 4th grade in public schools, 3 years ago, this is before her parents decided to pull her and her older brother from public schools and home school them. This is Samantha's story.

Samantha's mother had packed her lunch that day, packing a special treat for her daughter, one of her favorites, cheese slices. Little did Mom know that this lunch was forever going to change their lives.

When Samantha finished her sandwich, she opened the sealed container to find her cheese slices and a smile crossed her face, this was something that she really enjoyed, since she was a small child, Samantha,her brother Nick and their Dad talked over the day's events over cheese slices while waiting for Mom to get dinner ready, after Dad a long day at work, and Samantha and Nick ,the days school lessons . It was something special that she relates to her Dad.

She began to eat her cheese when the class bully a 125 lb. African American girl started calling her "Rat", the bully who we will call Chiquita, dominated the rest of the class into chanting in unison, "Rat teeth, rat teeth, chomping on your rotten cheese". Adult witnesses [cafeteria cashiers] claim that her teacher and the teachers aide were both having lunch at the adult table with their backs to the class. Of course Samantha began to cry, I as an adult can't imagine going through that humiliation, so I know that this child was scared to death. Samantha did the only thing she knew to do, and she was doing it just as the teacher got to the table, Samantha hung her head with tears streaming down her face and said aloud, 'Please God, Help Me'.

Apparently praying in school is forbidden because Samantha was assigned 2 weeks of silent lunch. For those of you who don't know what silent lunch is, please let me tell you what the public school system considers an appropriate punishment for bad behavior in the lunchroom. This particular school's cafeteria doubles as the auditorium. Each child punished must sit at a their own small table that is placed on the raised stage {they must eat alone} where the entire lunchroom can see the children who are receiving this punishment on display with a poster board attached to each individual table describing what the child has done wrong. Samantha's read, Praying in school. [I am not kidding] The child is then told that they must not face the crowd they eat facing the wall, alone. Of course, Samantha cried because she had always been told that it was beautiful and normal to pray to the Lord. She was raised in a home where her parents and brother attended church and pray together at meals everyday.

Samantha's older brother Nick's class regularly came to lunch 15 minutes past his sisters class. When her brother read her poster board, he knew what was happening to his sister was wrong on so many levels. He did what any brave Godly young man would do, he sat down at his lunch table and began to pray. When he was asked why he deliberately broke the school rule and did the same thing his sister did, his response was just this, "She is my sister and praying is not wrong, and if she is going to be punished for praying she won't go through it alone, for my parents have taught us to give thanks for our meals, and my Dad has told me to take care of my younger sister when we are away from home. I am taking care of my baby sister. {Nick is 2 years older than Samantha}

The school did not feel that it was necessary to notify the parents that she was receiving this punishment because children are regularly disciplined for acting out in the cafeteria. But Nick did.

Their parents wanted to believe that Nick was telling the truth, but just knew that there was no way the kids were being punished for praying in school. It sounded absolutely ridiculous, there had to be a part of the story missing. Their parents did not say that they did not believe the kids, but just felt that something was not right with the story being told.

The next morning, their parents felt that since both children were now being punished, they would go to the school as a family unit and face whatever it was that the children has done wrong, and talk to the children on site about what it was they did wrong, because it was so out of character for either child to be receiving such a harsh punishment, let alone both of them. They wanted to be certain that the kids knew what they had done because clearly they had misunderstood, because the children were saying they were being punished for praying, and that just did not make any sense at all.

Once my husband and I talked to the principal and were told that in fact our children were being punished for praying, we pulled them from public school that day and they have been home schooled since.

The one thing Nick did not tell us was what Samantha had gone through because he did not know. to say that my heart was broken for my little girl is the understatement of the decade. She had actually began to believe that what she did was wrong, and was going to take her punishment. I guess that is what troubles me the most.

We were so proud of our children for not being ashamed to pray, and we also took comfort in knowing that nick was taking care of her, he was not going to let her go through that alone. he was so brave to deliberately pray to get on that stage with her. By the way, he refused to sit at a different table than her on that stage, he was adamant that he was sitting with her, he told them she needed him, she was upset and crying and if he did not help her to calm down she would be taking the tears back to class with her.

In case anyone is wondering, the bully received no punishment because the teacher did not see her do it, and they are not permitted to take the word of the other student involved in the situation.

Stupid wasn't it, my daughter punished for praying to God, and the actual bully got away with it.

On a lighter note, homeschooling was the best choice my husband and I ever made. Now our children can and do pray throughout the day. T6hey receive bible instruction and are thriving above their grade level. I praise God for bringing our family to home school and I hope that if you are trying to decide whether or not to school at home, I can honestly say, I wish that I had schooled them from kindergarten.