Jason Bachand was at today’s trial and he breaks down his experience for us. (If you want more background on the story, check out this post.) I love this bit: At one point, Judge Lagueux interrupted [defense counsel Joseph Cavanagh, Jr.’s] remarks to ask: “What if [the banner] had been written to the Great Buddha?” “Well, if that’s what the school had decided and established… if the school had grown up around it, that would be fine,” Cavanagh answered. And… Read more
You all saw the front page of the Providence Journal today, right? Because it’s pretty freakin’ amazing (PDF): Paul Davis’ cover story highlights Jessica Ahlquist’s legal battle against Cranston High School West and how its leaders have stubbornly refused to obey the law and take down the unconstitutional Christian banner hanging in the auditorium: In March, the School Committee voted to keep the prayer because it is a historic document created more than 50 years ago — along with a… Read more
Jason Bachand at A Bright Blog has a nice interview with Jessica Ahlquist in anticipation of her upcoming trial to remove the religious banner from Cranston High School West. ABB: Let’s talk about the growing phenomenon of atheist bullying. As more young people come “out” about their atheism, there’s been a concurrent rise in hateful, often violent responses from their communities. (The case of Damon Fowler from Louisiana comes to mind.) What has been the lowest or most difficult moment… Read more
One of the younger activists in our community, Jessica Ahlquist, is going to be honored at the 2011 Rhode Island ACLU Annual Dinner Celebration. Jessica is the high school student fighting to remove a religious banner at Cranston High School West. The ACLU is defending her and this dinner is a fundraiser for them. One of the ways they raise money is by selling ads in their program booklet (PDF). Those ads are expensive, though, so Jessica’s uncle has started… Read more
This is one of the talks that had everyone buzzing at the Secular Student Alliance conference last month: Jessica Ahlquist talking about her lawsuit, what she’s had to go through with her peers since going public with her atheism, and why we all need to help out young atheists. Carve out time to watch this. I can’t wait to see how many high school atheist groups pop up over the next couple years. Imagine having students like Jessica (and Damon… Read more
Jessica Ahlquist is a high school sophomore and the lead plaintiff in the Rhode Island ACLU’s lawsuit against the city of Cranston. Her high school is the one that has a School Prayer banner that officials don’t think is religious in nature… Jessica just started writing a blog of her own and her first post is about how she got involved in this case as well as what has happened since filing the lawsuit: As I sat down, I said… Read more
Jessica Ahlquist is the high school sophomore at the center of the lawsuit against the city of Cranston over a religious banner hanging in the local high school. She recently sat down for a lengthy interview with her uncle, who happens to make a YouTube series called Philosophy On the Ground: There aren’t too many high-schoolers out there with that level of courage and outspokenness. My appreciation for her just skyrocketed. She’s exactly the type of person you want leading… Read more
Rhode Island State Rep. Peter Palumbo, who once called teen atheist activist Jessica Ahlquist an “evil little thing,” just got arrested on charges of embezzlement. Read more
Norwegian journalist Even Gran spent a year in the U.S. not too long ago and he used the opportunity to dive into our nation’s problems with church/state separation. He spoke with a couple of the students I’ve written about extensively on this site — Jessica Ahlquist and Damon Fowler — and the result is his book Rise of the Seculars: Read more
The school district in Cranston, Rhode Island is back in the news over a religious battle (long after Jessica Ahlquist graduated). This time, the teachers’ contract allowed them to take a day off of work for a religious holiday… as long as their faith required them to attend religious services that day. So Rosh Hashanah? Fine. Good Friday? Not so much. And there’s the problem: Read more
