 March 31, 1999
National Notes
___ Court upholds teacher's firing. The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from a Missouri teacher who was fired after letting students use profanity in a classroom assignment. On March 8, the high court let stand an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a school board's decision to fire Cecilia Lacks, a teacher at Berkeley High School in suburban St. Louis. "A school district does not violate the First Amendment when it disciplines a teacher for allowing students to use profanity repetitiously and egregiously in their written work," the appeals court said.
___ Home-schooled children score high. The average home-schooled child ranks well above his public and private school counterparts in reading, language and mathematics skills, according to a nationwide study released March 23. The study was sponsored by the Home School Legal Defense Association. The largest-ever of its kind, the study evaluated 20,760 home-schooled students contacted through the mailing lists of fundamentalist Christian Bob Jones University in South Carolina. The university is home to the nation's largest home-school testing service.
___ Anti-Semitic incidents up slightly. Anti-Jewish acts increased slightly in the United States during 1998, according to a new survey of anti-Semitic incidents compiled by the Anti-Defamation League. The survey reported 1,611 anti-Semitic incidents last year, an increase of more than 2 percent over 1997. While the number of incidents of harassment, threat or assault directed against Jews remained virtually unchanged from 1997, the 1998 survey showed a 6 percent jump in reported instances of vandalism against synagogues, schools, community centers and other Jewish institutions.
___ School board prayer unconstitutional. The Cleveland Board of Education is violating the Constitution by opening its meeting with a prayer, a federal appeals court said March 18. The 6th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, reversed a 1996 decision that said the prayer was permissible because it was similar to opening a state legislative session with prayer. Federal courts have ruled such prayers are permissible. But the appeals courts said prayer at the school board meeting is more like prayers at school graduation ceremonies or in classrooms, which federal courts deem unconstitutional.
___ Lyons says investigation was legitimate. Henry Lyons, who resigned as president of the National Baptist Convention USA and pleaded guilty to federal charges, said March 18 that he now believes the investigation into his wrongdoing was not racist. "We do have a ways to go in this country in terms of racism," Lyons told Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today Show." "Yes, I still hold that, but no, I feel that this was a legitimate investigation. I have made some legitimate and actual mistakes, and ... I'm here to take that responsibility."
___ Enrollment surging at evangelical colleges. Evangelical Christian colleges and universities far outpace their secular counterparts in growth, according to the latest enrollment figures published in the March 5 issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education. From 1990 to 1996, undergraduate enrollment in 90 evangelical Christian colleges affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities showed a 24 percent increase in enrollment. During the same period, private and secular colleges gained just 4 percent to 5 percent.
___ Gay elder upheld. A church tribunal has upheld the right of First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, Conn., to elect an openly gay elder to its governing board. In a 4-1 decision, the Presbyterian judges ruled the church governing board could not press a man who admitted to being in a same-sex relationship on whether he was sexually active. In 1997, the Presbyterian Church USA amended its constitution to bar non-celibate homosexuals from ordination or holding church governing positions.
___ Ballpark discount out of bounds. A Maryland minor league baseball team's policy of giving a hefty discount to churchgoers who showed church bulletins is a form a religious discrimination, the Maryland Human Rights Commission has said. Carl Silverman of Waynesboro, Pa., a self-described agnostic, arrived at a Hagerstown Suns game in Hagerstown, Md., last Easter without a church bulletin, which was required for a discounted ticket. He filed a complaint after the park refused to grant his family the discount.
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