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It's NOT safe to be an Atheist in America. The Nichole Smalkowski Case/story
- Oct 4, 2009 at 10:44 PM
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- Comments (41) Total Views (1709) Everyone can see this journal post.
I made a post earlier in a group about Atheists being ostracized and having hate flung at them mixed with bias and prejudice . So i was searching around the web and found a story about a HS girl named Nichole Smallkowski <sp?> she says she is an atheist and her School was absolutely horrible to her. Here is a clip I found on You Tube to explain it -
So they were suing the school in the end. Then at some point the Father of the girl went to talk with the Principle and the principle swung at him and the pressed charges on him. The town circled the wagons and this family went through a lot but in they end the won the suit .
here's some more back story -
The Smalkowski case attracted national attention after Nicole Smalkowski was kicked off of the girls’ basketball team after refusing to stand in a circle with her teammates on the gymnasium floor of the Hardesty public High School and recite the “Lord’s Prayer.” After school officials learned that she and her family were Atheists, lies were created about her as grounds to take her off of the team.
When her father Chuck discovered conclusively that public school and law enforcement officials had lied to him about his 15 year old daughter, he and Nicole and her mother Nadia went to the home of principal Lloyd Buckley to attempt to discuss the matter with him. Outside of his front fence, the principal struck Chuck, who blocked the blow. Both men fell to the ground and Buckley sustained minor injuries, the provable origins of which were strikingly contrary to his under oath trial testimony. Buckley then took out misdemeanor criminal assault charges against Chuck. After Smalkowski rejected the offer to drop the charges if he and his Atheist family left the state, the charges were raised to a felony. Chuck called American Atheists for help.
Now I wanted to know what happened and was having a hard time finding anything out but it looks like the girls family won their suits and all. I am wondering How does this happen in america? What is wrong with these people? How could the Adults in ths school allow this to go on? I don't care what a person believes in this is awful and no-one should be treated like this nevermind a teen age girl!!
This site has a letter written by the father. Really this entire thing is sickening. On top of all this they had a really hard time getting people to sit on the jury because they all kept saying they would not believe people who call themselves atheists. Disgusting!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1598933
His small town attorney even lied to him and his family , this really was like a Salem Witch trial..just so unbelievable ...except it's all true !
(From same site sited above)
Somewhere along the line I
talk to the ACLU out of San Francisco. Who let me know my
first civil lawyer was not telling me the whole story. I was
advised by them and many others to complain to the Bar about
him.
You see he never told me that the prayer in itself is
illegal. That the schools in this area were not following the
state and federal funding guidelines. When I asked him after
finding out from the ACLU. He said yes it is against the law.
I told him I want to have it stopped. He told me he would not
for he was a Christian and he believed there should be school
prayer. His statement floored me for it bordered on madness.
I said what you believe and what you do for a client is two
different things and that you took an oath. He still refused.
It did not matter to him that I had already given him $10,000
dollars. He knows we are not rich. So I wrote a letter to him
to complain about his refusing to take my daughters civil case
where it should have gone from the start. And I asked for my
money back. He sent me a bill for another $5000 saying it was
the charge for reading my letter and wasting his time.
In my search for a civil attorney it became clear that no one
would touch this case. In all of Oklahoma I could not find an
attorney. My criminal attorney said he would look at it but
only after I paid him his $15000 for the criminal case. He
sent me a letter that the funds for the criminal were coming
too slow and suggested that I seek other counsel for the
civil matter. But even after he got his $15000 he would only
take it if I paid him more. (Now that I have won the criminal
case he wants on the civil. Suffice to say he is off the
civil!)
Comments:
That poor family ! What an awful lot to go through .
voted up btw , thanks for journaling about it !
That's horrible.
Offering to drop the charges if they leave the state! What a joke!
that is sad.
But it's not just athiests. It seems that no one in America is safe if they are different then the mainstream of the public that surrounds them.
Great Journal Tatum!
Man doesn't that make ya wanna hurl? I'm a Christian, but I know that I know that I know that I KNOW, that not everyone is... and that those who aren't, aren't necessarily immoral, sadistic, heathen, hateful, murdering people. We have some who claim to be Christian who do the same things, so morals and ethics are adherent to one particular belief system. What I cannot believe for one minute is why in the world being an atheist gave any of these people who call themselves Christians the right or the belief that doing this could really show others who Jesus is??? It boggles my mind.
There is a situation brewing in my area. Cheerleaders at a local high school would hold up signs with Christian scripture written on them for the football team to run through at the beginning of each game. Someone pointed out that that was against Federal Law, and now there is a big firestorm raging. The students and parents of that school feel like they are above the law and that they should be able to display whatever religious messages they want to at these public games. You can be sure, though, that if someone from another faith, or no faith, wanted to display equivalent messages that it would not be tolerated. Hypocrisy. Where would we be without it?
That's in your area? Wow, I've heard about that. You KNOW if they held up a banner that said "There's probably no God. Now quit worrying and enjoy your life." they'd shut them down quicker than they can scream FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!
*sigh* Double standards, double standards, double standards. It's things like this that make me think twice about "coming out" to my family and friends. I have my FB thing set to agnostic atheist, but almost nobody has noticed it. If they have, they don't care. I'm just scared for my daughter's safety. I live in NC in the heart of pentecostal/fundamentalist/southern Baptist territory. Who knows what'll happen if I start telling people I'm an atheist.
I am in a lot of ways "In the closet" in the real world on this issue. My daughter as well. She's not an atheist but a Pagan and a very Christian supervisor during the course of an after hours get together brought this issue up and my DD said she was so uncomfortable and remained quiet since she needs her job and truly felt that explaining or simply stating she felt different would have caused her problems at work or her job.
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Wow, that's so sad. I've been telling people for a LONG time that atheists aren't safe in these parts, especially where I live in the Bible Belt. People refuse to listen to me and just blow me off. Voted up!
- caitxrawks
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