Fox News reporter Todd Starnes was busted, yet again, for pushing a biased story on the persecution of Christians. Starnes reported a story about a first-grade student in California who was disallowed from delivering a one-minute presentation about her family’s traditional Christmas practice because it had religious references.
According to the reporter, the girl had planned on narrating to her classmates how her family places an ornament on top of the Christmas tree to represent the star of Bethlehem and then recite a short verse from the Bible about its significance. He quoted an attorney from Advocates for Faith and Family to authorize his claim that the class teacher asked the girl to take her seat before finishing her presentation on December 19.
“The disapproval and hostility that Christian students have come to experience in our nation’s public schools has become epidemic,” said attorney Robert Tyler, warning the family might sue if the school district didn’t apologize and change its policies on religious expression.
Starnes’ report included a statement from the school district which clarified that it was investigating the claim as well as a paraphrase of the principal’s statement, provided by the girl’s mother. However, Starnes failed to include any statement from the class teacher or the principal. They were compelled to release their own statements after various religious groups and publications started picked up the story and started harassing them.
According to the class teacher, the exercise was intended to improve the students’ public speaking skills and since the girl was the only one to read out from a prepared reference sheet, she was asked to return to her seat.
“At no time did I ever tell the student that she could not read the bottom section because it was a Bible verse nor did she ask if she could finish. I never told her to ‘Stop right there!’ or ‘Go take your seat!’ or reprimand her in front of the class for sharing from the Bible. It just did not happen,” said teacher Tammy Williams.
Principal Ami Paradise said that she met with the girl’s parents the following day, as they were upset over the assumption that the girl had not been allowed to complete her presentation because of its biblical reference. According to the principal, neither parent claimed bullying or humiliation by the teacher and the religious legal group had concocted these allegations.
“Over the past week, I have received countless phone calls and 126 mean-spirited emails from across the country as a result of the claims that the Advocates of Faith and Freedom have made against one of my teachers, the school district, and myself. These claims are simply not true,” said Paradise.
Reportedly, this is not the first time that Starnes has been busted on grounds of poorly sourced stories that portray religious discrimination. His poor reporting skills have earlier led to others being targeted and harassed as well.
Photo Credits: by Rae Whitlock
