Student appeals teacher's 'Jesus glasses' mockery

A law firm has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to expand a lower court's ruling that found a teacher's comment about a student's Christian faith in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

Advocates for Faith and Freedom is appealing on behalf of the student, Chad Farnan, whose problems erupted while he was attending advanced-placement classes at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, Calif.

Teacher James Corbett, who already had a reputation for mocking Christians when Farnan began taking an advanced-placement European history class from him two years ago, was determined by a judge to have violated the Constitution when he stated "an unequivocal belief that creationism is 'superstitious nonsense.'"

But a number of other statements were left standing, and officials with Advocates said they, too, need to be addressed.

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Associate General Counsel Jennifer Monk said, "Numerous other statements were made by Dr. Corbett that should make any public-school teacher cringe. The fact that Judge [James] Selna determined that only one statement violated the Constitution is the basis for the appeal."

For example, the teacher's statement, "When you put on your Jesus glasses you can't see the truth," was found not to be a violation.

The ruling from the district court did find that Corbett's "superstitious nonsense" remark
"constitutes improper disapproval of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause."

The case developed after Farnan alleged the teacher spent an extended period of time at the beginning of each class discussing topics that are not only irrelevant to history but also inflammatory and often inappropriate for high-school students.

The case recognized that far too often the Establishment Clause is invoked when there is a perceived promotion of religion, the law firm said. But it often is not applied with equal force where a government actor like Corbett shows disapproval of religion.

Selna's ruling noted, "The Supreme Court's comments with regard to governmental promotion of religion apply with equal force where the government disapproves of religion."

"It is constitutionally impermissible for Dr. Corbett to use his classroom as a bully pulpit to display his personal disapproval of Christianity," said Robert Tyler, general counsel for Advocates.

"As the court correctly determined, Dr. Corbett violated the Establishment Clause. This is an important precedent-setting case that will likely set the standard for teaching in public schools."

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Monk told WND the issue needs to be fully reviewed at the appellate level.

"We feel at this point there are other statements that are clearly hostile to religion," she said. "If they're going to review one statement, we want them to review all of them."

Without being challenged, the statements that were not determined to be in violation ultimately could be used as building blocks in further attacks on Christianity, she said.

WND reported earlier that the judge's ruling apparently was a first-of-its-kind. The ruling followed the rantings by the teacher against the South, church, Republicans, Christians, conservatives and Rush Limbaugh.

Among the statements made by the teacher:

What part of the country has the highest murder rate? The South. What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South. What part of the country has the highest … church attendance? The South. Oh, wait a minute. You mean there is not a correlation between these things …

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You know, you go down to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, all these states that are as red as they could possibly be, as right-wing Republican as you could possibly be. When you first present these people with the economic policies of the Democratic party, they are all Democrats. Virtually all the social programs, they like. They lead the Democratic party on social issues. That's it. Social issues, can you imagine what they're saying on Rush Limbaugh now? About, 'Middle-school people in New England giving people birth-control pills. My God. What next?' I love Rush Limbaugh. … And, boy, is he a liar. Unbelievable.

Well, we know abstinence doesn't work. And we know one other thing, and that is, once people become sexually active, they often don't stop for, like, 40 or 50 years. I mean, generally, when you start you don't, like, have a conversion and try to become re-virginized, you know. It's not going to happen.