Secular Café: Nova Scotia student suspended for wearing religious T-shirt

Secular Café Discuss atheism, religious apologetics, separation of church & state, theology, comparative religion and scripture.

Nova Scotia student suspended for wearing religious T-shirt May 6th 2012, 12:46 Nova Scotia student suspended for wearing religious T-shirt. Your thoughts? "Life is wasted without Jesus," says the bright yellow T-shirt that got a Nova Scotia high school student suspended for five days. William Swinimer, 19, says he'll keep wearing the shirt though he risks not graduating. "The reason I'm wearing the T-shirt is because I'm standing up for my religion and for my freedom of speech," he told Global News. "I have nothing against any other people's religions." Swinimer was asked to stop wearing the shirt after other students at his high school in Chester Basin, east of Halifax, were offended by the slogan that implies their own religious beliefs are wrong, said Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, the superintendent of South Shore Regional School Board. The school board policy allows students to wear T-shirts that express religious views — as long as they don't criticize the beliefs of others, she said. Swinimer was not suspended because of the slogan, but for repeatedly denying requests from the principal to change his shirt, said Pynch-Worthylake. Whether the shirt crosses the line into offence is unclear, she said. It would not be an issue if the shirt read: "My life is wasted without Jesus." The teen was encouraged to speak up by Varrick Day, his pastor at the Pentecostal Jesus the Good Shepherd church. "This is the culmination of years of William being stopped from speaking about and promoting his faith in school," said Day. "I agree with the school board that there is a right way and wrong way of expressing ourselves," he said. "The issue here is not about the T-shirt slogan, it's about the freedom of speech and freedom of religion. It's about kids being able to go to school and express their feelings, emotions, beliefs and faiths." The school board is seeking a mediator to help work out an agreement with Swinimer, his family and his church. But the teen doesn't intend to back down — he plans to wear the shirt to school on Monday, said Day. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...igious-t-shirt

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions