On January 22, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on behalf of plaintiffs Scott and Sara Lane, filed suit against Sabine Parish School Board, Sara Ebarb, superintendent of Sabine Parish, Gene Wright, principal, Negreet High School and Rita Roark, teacher, Negreet High School, for intimidating and harassing their son CC on religious grounds.
The Lanes said that 11-year-old CC is a lifelong Buddhist of Thai descent and when he enrolled as a sixth grader at Negreet High School, he was humiliated and harassed for not adhering to the religious beliefs of the science teacher, Rita Roark. When CC’s parents spoke to higher authorities about the issue, superintendent Sara Ebarb apparently told them CC should change either his faith or his school district and move 25 miles away, where there are more Asians.
Commenting on CC’s case of proselytization, political activist and journalist Zack Kopplin said, “This proves the point that I’ve been trying to make for years, that Louisiana would eventually face a challenge based on the teaching of creationism in public schools. If the allegations in this case are true, she should be fired, because this is child abuse. Actually, it’s more than just child abuse; this is potentially a hate crime.”
Kopplin testified in 2013 for the third consecutive year on the repeal of the “misguided and misnamed” Louisiana Science Education Act - a law that allows public school teachers to teach New Earth Creationism as an alternative and legitimate scientific theory to evolution. Despite Kopplin’s effort being supported by 78 Nobel laureates, petitions signed by more than 70,000 people and scientific organizations representing more than 10 million members, Senator Conrad Appel argued that the law was justified since no one had a problem with its application. Even though many critics dismissed the argument as specious, the repeal bill failed in committee for the third year in a row and Appel said that the problem was Kopplin, not the law.
According to ACLU, CC’s case reveals a culture of ignorance, intolerance and bigotry. It goes beyond Louisiana Science Education Act and addresses a public school culture that encourages religious proselytization and harassment of any student who does not believe in fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. Their lawsuit requests the court to issue an order to prohibit the school district from continuing to promote religion and requires the district to reimburse the Lanes the cost of transporting CC to a different school.
It must be noted that Governor Bobby Jindal, superintendent John White and members of Louisiana Senate Education Committee have all protested against such practices. Yet, school districts have failed to separate the church from educational institutions.
