Counselor suspended over ‘religious advice’

By WND Staff

December 12, 2003

A dropout-prevention counselor at a North Carolina high school has been

suspended for reportedly sharing Scripture with a student who was struggling

with homosexuality.

Beth Pinto, 38, was suspended with pay from Concord High School in

Cabarrus County pending an investigation into whether she gave the student

religious advice.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, the Independent Tribune reports

a female student came to Pinto and said she was wrestling with the issue of

homosexuality. The girl asked Pinto, who is active in First Baptist Church in

Concord, N.C., for the Bible’s take on the matter. Pinto reportedly responded

by sharing specific Scripture with the girl.

According to the local paper, a third person caught wind of the

conversation and tipped off a school administrator.

“School staff are to remain neutral in religious matters,” school board

member Grace Mynatt told the paper when asked about the case. “You can

not make a school an area of religious studies.”

The district’s attorney, Mark Henriques, attributed the school’s position on

the matter to “the separation of church and state as set out in the First

Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

“Consistent with cases decided by the Supreme Court and other federal

courts, the Cabarrus County Schools do not allow their employees to

advocate personal religious beliefs in the classroom or in their interactions

with students at school,” Henriques said in a press release.

Critics of this increasingly prevalent zero-tolerance stance on the part of

public schools across the country argue the Constitution is being

misconstrued and that officials, attorneys – even judges – fail to note the

Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which

provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of

religion” also reads “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Pinto’s peers weren’t happy about her suspension and staged a protest

earlier in the week by forming a circle outside the school and holding hands, according to the Tribune.

Editor’s note: “THE MYTH OF CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION” – the special November edition of WND’s acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine – documents conclusively that the modern legal doctrine of “separation of church and state” is the work of activist judges, and has utterly no basis in the Constitution.

Putting God back into the classroom

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