Comments on: Worst Field Trip Idea Ever

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:51:08 +0000

I went to West Monroe High School and parish is not in the name, but yes it’s a public school. Although this means it recieves state funding, don’t get your young, undereducated brain too worked up Polly.
West Monroe is one of, and in certain areas the top high school in Louisiana where many of it’s programs are concerned. Guess where some of the money for THOSE programs comes from! Being that the majority of N.E. LA is of Evangelical religion, most field trips of this nature don’t offend many, if any, students. If it does, then don’t go. However, if this particular student happens to be a choir member, etc., then he/she shouldn’t expect a free ride down to Baton Rouge on that nice bus with friends when they make All – State, as West Monroe always does. That’s the STATE’S gas!!!!
By the way, keep your dull – witted remarks to yourself. I hold a BA in English Literature. I see you conveniently forgot to list where you’re from.

By: Jacquie

Jacquie — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:42:09 +0000

Oh my gosh, this is where I went to high school (West Monroe). I was there from 1998-2002, and I remember going from prayers on Monday mornings to moments of silence.

I just yesterday posted a comment about my Louisiana schooling experience here –> http://skepticblog.org/2009/01/19/louisiana-we-have-a-problem/

My time there was before I started calling myself an atheist and got into the whole secular movement thing, so I guess things would have been much different if I had been then the person I am today. At the time, I basically just dealt with it and was glad that there were a few reasonable teachers in the building, at least.

It’s pretty scary.

By: SarahH

SarahH — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:46:58 +0000

To quote Shane, when sent to a fundamentalist summer school on the show Weeds:

I’d like to solve the mystery of a school that receives federal funding yet blatantly presents a religious curriculum in direct violation of church/state separation mandate.

By: Justin Yost

Justin Yost — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:51:59 +0000

WTF???? School trip to attend a “Just for Jesus” rally, ok, can I bring my “I worship Satan” or even better “Jesus and I smoked pot” shirt?

By: ssns

ssns — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:27:05 +0000

“They come voluntrily, by the thousands”

Huh? Sounds like this folks need to concentrate more on the school and less on the Jeebus.

By: chancelikely

chancelikely — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:19:17 +0000

To a certain subset of evangelical Christian (and for whatever reason, this subset is overrepresented in school boards in Louisiana and Arkansas), Jesus really does trump everything, including “doing your job” and “acting in a way that won’t get your school district sued, costing taxpayers (i.e. your own damn neighbors) millions of dollars”.

At least there’s John Freshwater in Ohio and the Dover, PA, school board circa 2005 so that the rest of the country doesn’t feel left out of the sectarian craziness.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:49:56 +0000

I went to a Catholic grade school and they had a big meeting of sorts for all the Catholic schools in Omaha. It was weird. I don’t remember much (a defense mechanism) but I do remember we chanted, they preached and there was even a rapping priest who rapped to us about sex.

On the plus side…we got out of school early!

By: RobL

RobL — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:12:39 +0000

They come voluntrily, by the thousands – during the school day and receive the present day touch of Jesus.

Thousands come during the school day?!! What the hell?! I think I hear banjo music in the background. (The theme from Deliverance)

By: Siamang

Siamang — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:33:40 +0000

Parish means county in Louisiana.

It’s a public school.

By: happycynic

happycynic — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:03:24 +0000

The school has “parish” in the name, right? So is it a public school, or a religious one? If it’s religious there’s no problem, if it’s public then people should throw a fit.