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News Release
For Immediate Release: November 30, 2009
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Third Circuit Court of Appeals Needs a History Lesson

(Philadelphia) – Last Tuesday’s decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold South Orange–Maplewood School District's ban of all traditional Christmas songs shows the Court, as well as the administrators in the school district, need a history lesson, noted the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide traditional values group. Apparently they’ve been studying too many revised history books and do not know what our Founding Fathers intended by the First Amendment or where they stood on the issue of religion in schools.

“This decision reeks of political correctness. The three judge panel said public schools are required to remain strictly secular environments. Obviously they don’t know that when Thomas Jefferson was President he required the Washington, DC schools to use the Bible as their primary textbook,” remarked Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

The Third Circuit, which covers Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands, would have declared Benjamin Franklin’s 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania unconstitutional! He insisted that schools teach “the necessity of a public religion . . . and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.”

In a speech on May 12, 1779, George Washington claimed that what children needed to learn “above all” was the “religion of Jesus Christ,” and that to learn this would make them “greater and happier than they already are.”

“America’s school children are once again being used as guinea pigs in the grand social experiment called ‘political correctness.’ In this case they are being denied the ability to celebrate Christmas either through traditional Christmas carols, the mention of Santa Claus or Christmas trees. This interpretation of the First Amendment is not what the Founding Fathers intended,” further commented Gramley.

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