Fla. 5-Year-Old Told 'It's Not Good' To Pray By School Employee
PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio1020 KDKA) – A 5-year-old bows her head at lunch to say Grace before she eats may be considered cute and heartwarming by some.
That was not the case for a student in Florida.
The young girl was told by a school lunchroom supervisor that her actions were wrong.
The girl's father, Marcos Perez, is outraged to the point where he is considering homeschooling his child. Today, the Liberty Institute sent a letter to the school administrators demanding they stop allowing religious discrimination, which is in violation of not only state, but federal law. The school denies the incident.
Jeremy Dys, of the Liberty Institute, on behalf of his clients has been speaking out against the school's actions dismissing saying Grace in school.
Dys came on the Mike Pintek show to tell his client's story and how they got involved with this case.
"I saw it probably like a lot of you did, I saw it on Facebook. And thankfully, I was able to get a hold of Marcos and say, 'Hey, how can we help you? We want to stand beside young women like this that who are trying to do what their parents have taught them to do and have every right to do under the First Amendment. We want to come beside them unlike the teacher supervisor here and encourage their religious liberty." Dys said.
The Liberty Institute is a national non-profit legal group that defends and restores religious liberty across the country. The Perez family is citing this offense as a reason for removal from the public school system; they feel not allowing her to say Grace was an attack on her religious liberty.
In a press release sent out by the Liberty Institute, Mr. Perez is quoted saying:
"Mainly because of this incident, we have exercised our option as parents to teach our daughter at home. We live in a very good school district, but we cannot, in good conscience, send our daughter to a school where her religious liberty has been compromised." Perez said.
Dys wants the school to be held responsible for the oppressive actions of the cafeteria monitor and protect this from possibly happening to other children.
"We have sent a letter this morning to the school board here in Florida asking them to take immediate action and apologize to the community for what has gone on at this school and to reassure the community here, and the Perez family in particular, that this kind of thing will not happen again," Dys said.
The school has denied the incident occurring, which brings up the questions who is lying here? Dys says he doesn't want to call anyone a liar, but doesn't believe that this little girl could make up this story.
"This is a 5-year-old girl, who is not having a bone to pick with anybody. She simply was asked by her daddy, by the way was asked multiple times leading up to that video what had happened, and the story checks out at every single point along the way," Dys said.
You can listen to the whole interview here now!
You can also listen to the Mike Pintek Show weekdays Noon to 3.
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