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5-year-old told she can't pray as she bows her head to say Grace at school before she eats

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Jeremy Dys of The Liberty Institute joined me for Pamela' Place Friday to discuss his client and this topic.

A 5-year-old bows her head at lunch to say Grace before she eats may be considered cute and heartwarming by some.

That was not the case for a student in Florida.

The young girl was told by a school lunchroom supervisor that her actions were wrong.

The girl’s father, Marcos Perez, is outraged to the point where he is considering homeschooling his child. Today, the Liberty Institute sent a letter to the school administrators demanding they stop allowing religious discrimination, which is in violation of not only state, but federal law. The school denies the incident.

Jeremy Dys, of the Liberty Institute, on behalf of his clients has been speaking out against the school’s actions dismissing saying Grace in school.

Dys joined me on Pamela's Place to tell his client’s story and how they got involved with this case.

“I saw it probably like a lot of you did, I saw it on Facebook. And thankfully, I was able to get a hold of Marcos and say, ‘Hey, how can we help you? We want to stand beside young women like this that who are trying to do what their parents have taught them to do and have every right to do under the First Amendment. We want to come beside them unlike the teacher supervisor here and encourage their religious liberty.” Dys said.

The Liberty Institute is a national non-profit legal group that defends and restores religious liberty across the country. The Perez family is citing this offense as a reason for removal from the public school system; they feel not allowing her to say Grace was an attack on her religious liberty.

In a press release sent out by the Liberty Institute, Mr. Perez is quoted saying:

“Mainly because of this incident, we have exercised our option as parents to teach our daughter at home. We live in a very good school district, but we cannot, in good conscience, send our daughter to a school where her religious liberty has been compromised.” Perez said.

Dys wants the school to be held responsible for the oppressive actions of the cafeteria monitor and protect this from possibly happening to other children.

“We have sent a letter this morning to the school board here in Florida asking them to take immediate action and apologize to the community for what has gone on at this school and to reassure the community here, and the Perez family in particular, that this kind of thing will not happen again,” Dys said.

"Of course, students can pray at school!" said Dys. "As the Supreme Court held over half a century ago: Students do not 'shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.' The school is in violation of Department of Education guidelines that specifically protect this type of prayer, and thus could jeopardize its federal funding."

Liberty Institute continues to investigate this situation on behalf of its clients and other students, who experience unnecessary censoring of their religious liberty while at school. Last Fall, Liberty Institute represented 10-year-old Erin Shead, whose teacher informed her that she could not write an essay about Jesus as her hero. That situation lead to the Tennessee General Assembly passing a bill with overwhelming bipartisan support to expand student religious liberty. Similarly, Liberty Institute is still investigating claims by a mother in South Carolina, who was told that her 8-year-old daughter could not complete a similar school assignment for fear of violating the so-called, "separation of church and state."

About Liberty Institute Liberty Institute is a national nonprofit legal group dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America — in our schools, for our churches, inside our military and throughout the public arena. Liberty's vision is to reestablish religious liberty in accordance with the principles of our Founding Fathers. For information, visit www.LibertyInstitute.org.

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Keywords: Jeremy Dys ,The Liberty Institute ,Pamela's Place, Pamela "Jewels" Bates, WDNG Media,Marcos Perez,religious discrimination,constitutional rights ,

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