Fairfax County, Virginia public high schools screen the movie The Nativity Story
Two Fairfax County, Virginia public high schools have screened the movie The Nativity Story, with no objections from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-VA). The movie was shown in the evening at Mount Vernon High School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and was sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Jay Ruelas, an assistant soccer coach at Mount Vernon and one of the FCA’s faculty sponsors, says he experienced "no resistance" from inside or outside the school system in arranging for the viewing. Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United, says his organization has no objections to "voluntary events sponsored by outside organizations." He emphasizes that the voluntary nature of the screening "makes all the difference" and that if students were required to attend, his organization would object. "Certainly the teachers shouldn't be promoting a religious event," he says. "Our main concern would be if any public school were screening this devotional film and expecting all of the students to watch it. That would be schools sponsoring religion-we couldn't have that." ACLU-VA spokesman Kent Willis also found the screenings "perfectly acceptable" as long as the schools were not sponsoring the event, they were not mandatory, and the Christian group was not getting any special treatment other student organizations would be unable to get. According to Paul Regnier, a spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools, "As long as they're [FCA] within the bounds of any other club, they can use the community-use process like any organization." He notes that because FCA is a student club, they do not have to pay to use the school's facilities.
Washington Times
By Katie Nichols
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CNSNews.com
By Nathan Burchfiel
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