The Biblical Truth Comes Out. - Kid suspended for Jesus shirt

Recently there was a thread covering a students suspension for wearing a t-shirt that said "Life is wasted without Jesus"

Thread Here.

Now that the suspension is over, the school board planned on having a forum to discuss the matter. His father came and pulled him and his sister out of school saying they wouldn't return while there was a debate on the matter:

Students at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Grant are discussing religious beliefs and freedom of speech today, but William Swinimer, the student who sparked the debate, isn't part of that discussion.

His father, John Swinimer, pulled him out of the school when he arrived this morning following a five-day suspension for wearing a T-shirt that said Life is Wasted Without Jesus. John Swinimer said neither his son nor his daughter will return while such debates are going on.

The father was quote as saying:

“He will not attend this school unless they are having readin', writin' and 'rithmetic, good old-fashioned academics. When they're having forums, when they're having other extra curricular activities, he will not attend that school. ... The taxpayer is paying for him to learn his academics as well as the other students and I am not standing for any of this stuff.”

In any case, it was hard to believe a simple tshirt had the kid thrown out of school. It didn't seem like the full story was disclosed, and in today's article something else was mentioned by one of the kid's classmates:

Grade 10 student Riley Gibb-Smith said the situation is about far more than a T-shirt slogan. “This thing never was about a shirt. ... He's telling kids they'll burn in hell if they don't confess themselves to Jesus, he's said that,” Riley said

He is an exchange student from Australia and said Swinimer approached him on his third day at his new school. He said Swinimer frequently preaches to kids and won't stop when they tell him they've had enough.

And the support from the rest of the student body was aligned with the school's decision, not because they wanted to persecute Christianity, but because students were fed up with the harassment by the kid wearing the Jesus shirt:

Student council vice-president Katelyn Hiltz said she fully supports the school suspending Swinimer after he had been told repeatedly that some students were upset by his proselytizing and found his shirt offensive.

“I mean, a school is a place to feel safe and welcome and comfortable and if he's going to make them feel their life is wasted without Jesus, they're not going to feel comfortable, and they're not going to feel welcome, they're not going to feel safe, so they're just not going to want to be here anymore.”

The kid has the right to wear the shirt wherever he wants. But if he is harassing other kids then it changes the situation. The biggest problem is that the school went after the shirt in this case, when they should have gone after his behavior. Religious freedom is fine, but it's not freedom if you are trying to push it on people that don't want to hear it.

It's always funny when the media creates a huge circus over something that turns out to be completely reasonable.

Thanks for the follow-up information.

Useful insights. Thanks for the deeper understanding.


I do think the same thing happens on ATS far to frequently. Same sort of evangelizing happens with the intentions of winning converts.

And lots of people looking upon the continual noise as about as welcome as a fly at a picnic.

reply to post by MagnumOpus



I've had a thread derailed by proselytizing christians and atheists attacking one another. They were both absolutely right, of course. It was pretty fun

Well I imagine he isn't very popular ;(

I hate it when Christians attack other people and make claims that they're going to go to hell. It's like you are you to judge?, you silly human.

reply to post by RealSpoke


Well it seems "do not judge lest you be judged" seems to have worked perfectly here

Originally posted by Mkoll
reply to post by MagnumOpus

 

I've had a thread derailed by proselytizing christians and atheists attacking one another. They were both absolutely right, of course. It was pretty fun

edit on 7-5-2012 by Mkoll because: (no reason given)

Yes, that happens all the time on ATS. Most think there is a god that is basically mother nature or intelligent design, and the major issues is usually embellishments beyond that theme for god into too much fantasy.

This Fla. thing looks like one to be watched, as it gets down to disruption of the state's educational process and the issues of if the parents had the child to become a pest in school or a church ministry was the root of this overbearing effect from the kid, or both.

Technically, the parent removing the kid from the educational process via both physically not letting them attend and this overbearing disruptions by the kids of the educational process, is some that the state's child and family services needs to become involved. The object is the health and protections of the kids to get an education.

If the kid is being kept from education via either the parents or churches teachings, then the kids need to be removed from the home and placed into a different environment. The state or school boards need to make some laws that say no evangelism in the school and if your kid gets tossed out of school you need to provide private schooling or the kids will be removed from the parents and placed in a more correct home that will allow going to school.

It is bad the newspapers were misleading this major mess as being over just a T-shirt, because there is much more to the issue. It gets down to the churches interference with the matters of the state and the best for the children. If all the other kids learn that if you pester other kids you get tossed out of school, it will turn into a major mess.

Such points to more reasons to limit the churches involvements in interference with state issues and what is best for children to participate in state mandated schooling.

It might be time to charge a church and some parents with some bad intentions for the child. Like they'll charge parents with child endangerment due to not allowing a child medical care due to religious beliefs.

This will be interesting to watch how they get the kids back to school and get them to learn rather than evagelizing in schools.

An excellent follow up on this story Boncho. S&F.

The kid has the right to wear the shirt wherever he wants. But if he is harassing other kids then it changes the situation. The biggest problem is that the school went after the shirt in this case, when they should have gone after his behavior. Religious freedom is fine, but it's not freedom if you are trying to push it on people that don't want to hear it.

Correct. I would even say he has a right to talk about Jesus, but when someone asks you to stop, and you don't, it's harrassment. The school made a bad call on this one.

What I don't understand with the father, is how he claims to pull his kid from school because "taxpayers are paying for him to learn not to have forums on religious expression." yet it was how his son was expressing his religious views that sparked the forum in the first place. If the son just went to school and did his studies as intended (without using the school as biblical recruiting grounds) this never would have happened.

reply to post by Klassified

Correct. I would even say he has a right to talk about Jesus, but when someone asks you to stop, and you don't, it's harrassment. The school made a bad call on this one.

I agree with you too. Talking or discussing something of course is just a standard part of free speech. I do believe every school has their different groups or cliques of different religious leaning kids. In which case, others can simply ignore them or choose to be friends or interact with others, if they don't agree with them.

When kids are telling them to stop though, and they don't, that is crossing a line. No matter the topic. The school really dropped the ball on this one. They could have handled the situation much better, without all the controversy.

Originally posted by MagnumOpus

It is bad the newspapers were misleading this major mess as being over just a T-shirt, because there is much more to the issue.

Someone had to tell the media a story. They didn't just pull it out of thin air.

Who was it?

Seems the media just took the story from the viewpoint they were given - - without any real investigation.

Originally posted by boncho
What I don't understand with the father, is how he claims to pull his kid from school because "taxpayers are paying for him to learn not to have forums on religious expression." yet it was how his son was expressing his religious views that sparked the forum in the first place. If the son just went to school and did his studies as intended (without using the school as biblical recruiting grounds) this never would have happened.

lol
it's just the old hypocritical double standard
having his boy push his belief system on others was perfectly fine
having his boy exposed to other points of view is not.

nice follow up f&s

Originally posted by RealSpoke
Well I imagine he isn't very popular ;(

I hate it when Christians attack other people and make claims that they're going to go to hell. It's like you are you to judge?, you silly human.

edit on 7-5-2012 by RealSpoke because: (no reason given)

I hate it when judgmental people judge other people for being judgmental. There's a pattern here somewhere...

It's good to see it wasn't just for a T shirt. Some people will take the smallest thing and run with it, trying to blow it out of proportion.