School Orders Staffer to Remove “Charlie Brown” Christmas Poster

Todd Starnes  "One of the most poignant scenes in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is when Linus stands on a stage and recites a passage from the Holy Bible describing the Christmas story.

“ 'For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” Linus said.

"It really does sum up the true meaning – the true reason for the holiday season – the birth of our Lord.

"Dedra Shannon, a staffer at Patterson Middle School in Killeen, Texas, was so inspired by the scene she decided to use images to decorate the door to the nurse’s office

. . . "The decorations were installed on Dec. 5 and on Dec. 7 Ms. Shannon was confronted by the school’s principal.

“ 'She said, ‘please don’t hate me, but unfortunately you’re going to have to take your poster down,” Ms. Shannon said. “I’m disappointed. It is a slap in the face of Christianity.”

"The principal went on to explain that the poster violated the U.S. Constitution.

“ 'She said my poster is an issue of separation of church and state,” Ms. Shannon told me. 

“ 'She said the poster had to come down because it might offend kids from other religions or those who do not have a religion.”  . . . 

A sequel to this story.  . . . "But it turns out the principal may have inadvertently broken the 2013 “Merry Christmas” law. That law stipulates no school official in Texas can silence a Biblical reference to Christmas.

“ 'I am proud to have voted for the Merry Christmas law in 2013, when I was a member of the Legislature,” Paxton said. “We passed that law precisely because of this type of discrimination against people of faith.”

"Paxton minced no words in describing what happened in that hallway at Patterson Middle School.

. . . 

"The school board has a long history of standing up for religious liberty.

"Terry Delano, president of the school district’s board of trustees, told me they voted to change the name of “Winter Break” to “Christmas Break.” And last year they defied the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s demand to cease praying before meetings.

"The school district also ignored the Department of Education’s demand that they open all bathrooms to the opposite gender.

“ 'These strong stances for Christianity and morality often go unreported and unnoticed, but they represent important victories in a time when our culture seems to be rotting in a cesspool,” Mr. Delano wrote to me.

"It sounds as if the good people of Killeen are being well-served by the school board and I’m certain they will resolve this incident at the middle school – whether it was intentional or a misunderstanding.

"Either way, Attorney General Paxton dropped a great big yuletide truth bomb on the Killeen Independent School District: Don’t mess with Texas and don’t mess with Christmas. Otherwise, you might just find your tinsel in a twist." . . .