Thoughts about the Victory lawsuit, school prayer, and Globe, KZRG Facebook comments

At the risk of offending my readers who believe it to be a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, I have no problem whatsoever with public school students taking a field trip to a place like Victory Ministries and Sports Complex.

And what might come as a surprise to those who received all of their information from the Joplin Globe, neither does Doug Harpool.

Who is Doug Harpool, Globe readers might ask.

He is the one many of you have been criticizing as one of those liberal, Godless judges who dared say the district violated the U. S. Constitution with its May 2015 North Middle School MAP celebration field trip to Victory Ministries.

Part of Harpool's ruling was overlooked both in the Globe's report and in that of the Springfield News-Leader.

Those who read the Turner Report saw the full scope of Harpool's decision- it wasn't the venue of the field trip that caused the problem:

While the Constitution doesn't prohibit occasional use of religious facilities for a social function, Harpool wrote, "Here, the frequencies, consistency, and extent of the relationship between the Joplin District and Victory goes well beyond occasional or incidental use and impermissibly entangles the Joplin District with religion." This would be true even without the problems with the permission slips, he added.

That reasoning held no sway with people who saw Harpool's decision as indicative of everything that is wrong with today's society. It was evident in many of the comments on the Joplin Globe and KZRG Facebook sites.

Those who have read the Turner Report over the past few years were better equipped to understand how this lawsuit fit in with a wider range of activities that took place during C. J. Huff's time as superintendent.

The field trip lawsuit might never have happened if not for Huff's arrogance. The second the lawyer for the American Humanist Association showed him the permission slip that was sent home to North students, that should have been the end of the story and a different venue chosen for the field trip.

Not only did the permission slip give Victory personnel the right to promote their beliefs with the children (which did not happen), but it gave Victory the right to use student names and photos to promote the business (which did happen).

Trips to Victory might have resumed the following year with a permission slip from the school that did not clearly violate the First Amendment.

From the way his opinion was worded, Harpool's decision might not have been as clearcut if that approach had been taken.

Instead, Huff laughed it off, with an e-mail that said the permission slip could have been worded better and something would be done about it in the future.

The people at Victory, trying to work with Huff to take care of the situation, had the paragraph which permitted employees to proselytize the students removed, but Huff never bothered to send the reworked permission slips home with the students.

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If Huff did any research at all on the American Humanist Association, he should have been fully aware that it is litigious. The only way to avoid a lawsuit was to arrange for the North students to take their trip elsewhere.

The cavalier approach was not a new one for Huff. During his seven years at the helm, the Joplin R-8 School District was sued more times than the rest of the school districts in Jasper, Newton, Barton, and McDonald counties combined.

And more lawsuits stemming from his actions appear likely.

After all, it was not Huff's money the district was spending- it was ours.

It was Huff's decision to OK the field trip that opened the door for Thursday's decision. Had Huff been a more prudent steward of taxpayer money, the lawsuit would not have been filed, discovery would not have uncovered all of the district's other activities with Victory Ministries, and once the extent of the district's association with Victory became obvious, Harpool had no choice but to rule as he did.

That being said, it would be almost impossible to convince the commenters on the Globe and KZRG Facebook sites of that.

You have the ones who think they are impressing people when they repeat the right wing radio talking point that the words "church and state" can't be found in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights.

There are others who attack the family that sued- no one was forcing them to go on the trip. They were simply in it for the money. It's the kind of talk that must have been popular in the early 1960s when people asked why those young black people were wanting to sit at those lunch counters when they knew they weren't wanted.

The ones that irritate me the most are those who wail about God being taken out of the schools. Everything would be all right if only we had daily prayers over the intercom and God and the Bible were welcome on our campuses.

God has never left the schools. If you have to have someone coming over the intercom and telling you to bow your head in order for your beliefs to function then your faith must not be that strong.

The Supreme Court ruling that prevented mandated prayers led by teachers or administrators did not create godless schools. It also did not eliminate prayer.

Every student, teacher, or employee has the right to pray. What teachers do not have the right to do is to lead prayer or to try to push their religion on students. 

At the same time, I worked with many teachers and staff who brought their religion with them every day and wore it proudly- not with prayer or with symbols, but with the way they conduct themselves, offering strong moral examples for young people and using their faith to guide their decisions.

Reading the comments on the other media outlets' Facebook pages made me appreciate my readers and Facebook friends and followers even more than I already did. While we do not always agree, the discussion is nearly always on a higher plane. 

Let me know what you think.

Judge rules against Joplin R-8 on Victory Ministries lawsuit