Hundreds of students and alumni rallied outside Capistrano Valley High School Wednesday morning to show support for the history teacher, who is being sued by one of his students for making offensive remarks about Christians and conservative Christianity in class.
Around 200-300 protestors came about an hour before school started to defend James Corbett, who teaches Advanced Placement European history at the Mission Viejo school. Supporters lined the streets in front of the school chanting "support free speech" and holding signs that read, "He Made Us Think," "Keep Corbett" and "Who Would Jesus Sue?"
The rally came one week after sophomore Chad Farnan and his parents filed a lawsuit against the instructor for violating the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from advancing religion or promoting hostility toward religion.
Lawyers for the Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a Christian legal group representing the Farnan family, met with school Principal Tom Ressler last Wednesday and indicated they will drop the lawsuit if Corbett was fired.
Court documents cite statements made by Corbett in Farnan’s tape-recorded lectures such as “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth” and “Conservatives don’t want women to avoid pregnancies. That’s interfering with God’s work. You got to stay pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen and have babies until your body collapses.”
Some students, however, said at the rally that despite their religious background they were not offended by Corbett’s comments
Sophomore Shawn Heavlin-Martinez, who identified himself as a Quaker, is enrolled in the same class Farnan had been attending but said he was not insulted.
"Everything he says about religion is relevant to what he teaches," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Senior Ali Coyle, a former student of Corbett’s class, held a sign that read "Irish Catholic Supports Dr. Corbett."
"For hundreds of years the church was corrupt, and that has to be discussed," Coyle told the local newspaper. "I was never offended by what he said, and I'm an Irish Catholic."
Other students who have taken AP European history at the school concurred.
“I support Corbett because he’s a teacher who supported free speech and allowed us to discuss in an intelligent way,” Matt Yee, a junior who took the class last year, said in a report by the Orange County Register.
Down the street, two smaller groups of protestors held signs and expressed their support for Farnan by holding signs reading “Support Chad and The Constitution,” "Freedom from hate" and "Stop Dr. Corbett’s Intolerance."
"I love what Chad’s doing," said Farnan’s friend Cale Crawford, 16.
"The teacher is breaking the First Amendment, and Chad is standing up for what he believes in,” the home-schooled high school junior told the Orange County Register. Continue >>
Comments
What happened to free speech in this country??? James Corbett should be applauded for his comments. He speaks the truth and the moral majority lives in denial. Chad Farnan needs to grow up and quit whining. He needs a baby bottle not a lawyer.
So I guess every time someone makes him question his beliefs and makes him think outside the box he is going to run home to mommy and cry about it??? This is such a waste of time for the teacher involved. Maybe Chad should consider home schooling since he can’t handle conflicts and differences of opinion in the real world.
Everyone involved who is complaining about the teachers comments is pathetic. The problem with this country is there are too many who think our children should be “grounded in biblical doctrine”. It’s brainwashing not grounding children.
Hello wilderness :) Is your copying and pasting obsession getting better?
I think this teacher should receive a strong warning about violating the First Amendment, and should be fired if he does it again.
Many Christian parents need to realize that the government school system is not a safe babysitter, but a dark mission field. Children need to be grounded in biblical doctrine, full of the Spirit, and in a solid relationship with Christ before attending the government school system, not only as a spirit led student, but also as an ambassador of Christ.
Jesus thought that it was important to not only extensively teach his adult disciples, but also empower them before sending them into the world as witnesses. Why should children be released into a wolf-invested establishment or world without similar preparations?
Bottom line: The teacher, being in a situation of power over the students is supposed to remain secular, as Christian teachers are often told, why should it not be different with atheists? (he could have given farnan a bad grade had he argued) They should certainly not fire the teacher, but there should be some compensation.
Why is Darwinism and Atheism Unscientific and Mythical?
http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
As a teacher, we are instructed to advance tolerance, respect, dignity. We are to be equal in our treatment of the subject, never confusing personal bias for fact. We teachers are granted a great responsibility, and for Mr. Corbett's pluses (success in advance test placement), he comes short on tact. The man has his advocates and his detractors, but the bottom line is whether or not he engaged in the promotion of "hate speech."
I've seen good teachers discredited for less than this.
I believe Christians can debate, tactfully more so than the opposition. Now if we can reach people with the issue. Bashing of anyone or any group is a reversal of social progress, pushing us back to the 50's, when groups were "second class" in treatment. Whether African-Americans back then or Christians today, where's the progress?
Wow, christians can't debate, they kill? That is rather scary, and ignorant-Josh McDowell certaily would like to debate you on that. Oh, and by the way, atheists killed more people in the twentieth century in the name of Marx-inspired politics , or occult neo-witxhcraft (stalin and hitler) than all other religions combined- Hitler was obsessed with a quasi satanist prophecy involving jews and the spear of longevus..
Debate that, 20-60 million christians, jews, gypsies, and homosexuals slaughtered from the 1930's until the fall of the curtain. How many babies are having formaldahyde injected into their brainstem as they crown in China every day? No sir, Christians have a tendancy to be more apathetic and/or tolerant than any other social group on the planet, in it's history. The same cannot be said, sadly, for it's leadership, but....
last point- This case is the first I've seen of someone sueing for a non- christian worldview endorsement in the classroom, so someone justify the statement of christians killing rather than debate- if one case means that, then we can say atheists would rather commit genocide than debat. I'm just saying, ya know, using your standards..
This teacher must have known that what he was saying was illegal. He also must have known the penalty. If he had molested his students physically, instead of spiritually, would he still have people protesting for him?
once again when christians don't like what someone says, they immediately use the power of the state to destroy that person. christians can't debate, they kill anyone who questions their myths.
Chica hit the nail on the head. Would all these people be screaming "free speech" if he had talked Muslims? What if he had made a comment about homosexuals? I think for some, this will add fuel to the fire in the private school debate already beginning in the Southern Baptist Convention. I can't believe that tolerance applies to everything except Christians...well, maybe I can.
I don't imagine this teacher ever did or will in the future say anything disparaging about Muslims or homosexuals. That's because there would be a huge fallout, for him and the school. It might not be necessary to fire him, but I think this dude needs some "fallout", say, in the amount of $$$. That will keep his hateful mouth shut! You can't scream FREEDOM OF SPEECH and ignore other laws like the hate-crimes one. Pony up the dow, Corbett. Let the money go to a CHRISTIAN ministry of the Farnans' choosing.
While I don't approve of what the teacher did, neither do I approve of the attempt to get him fired. Unless, of course, the Southern Baptists are ready to agree that all of the "Christian" teachers busy trying to proselytize in public schools should be fired as well. What's sauce for the goose . . . .
The best way to handle this is the way it's being handled in the reverse situation in New Jersey ("Christian" teacher trying to convert students in his classes). Both teachers should be told the limits of what they can and cannot do and say in their role as teachers, and then be disciplined if (thereafter) they fail to follow the rules.