Believe that Jesus is the Reason for the Season – You Need a Shrink!
An eight year old boy who drew a stick figure of Christ on the cross for an assignment about what Christmas means to you was interrogated, sent home, and required to go for psychological evaluation before he could return to school.
A teacher found the kid’s portrayal of Christ on the cross with x’s for eyes sufficiently disturbing that the school wanted to be sure he was not a danger to himself or to others. An eight-year-old boy! The school insists they followed proper protocols by interrogating him, asking him repeatedly of whom it was a picture. The third time they asked the question, the boy figured out that Christ was the wrong answer, so he changed his answer and said it was himself.
True, the father is demanding a full scholarship, in the old-fashioned American way of seeking to exploit the situation for personal gain. But the school does not deny interrogating the kid, sending him home, or requiring a psych eval. The school also insists this has nothing to do with religion or religious discrimination.
Assume that the school is sincere. What does this say about our schools? Our culture? That we have become so secularized that it is now considered out-of-bounds for an 8 year old kid to think of Jesus when he thinks of Christmas? If the kid drew a picture of the violent video game he wanted for Christmas, or the violent movie he hoped to get on DVD, that would be o.k., but Jesus on the cross? That’s beyond the pale!
Now the reports indicate that the school did actually telephone the father, but apparently, it was not a meaningful or cooperative discussion about the boy’s welfare. The father could have explained the picture, because he had taken his son to a Catholic retreat center the weekend before, where the boy had been interested in a crucifix where Jesus’ eyes were closed. If the parents had been consulted before the school jumped to conclusions, they could have avoided terrorizing the kid.
Since when do school officials have the right to interrogate an 8 year old about a drawing without first consulting his parents? What gives these officials the right to require that we subject our children to psychological evaluations as a condition of attending school? An 8 year old boy! The boy will be attending a different school after the holidays. By the way, the psych eval came back just fine. There is nothing wrong with the boy.
Even if the school was legitimately concerned about the child, this story is very disturbing. The abuse of power and the ignorance of our religious culture are truly shocking. It is all the more disturbing that the school insists it properly followed “protocols” for the safety of our children. If this is how our public schools intend to keep our children safe – by terrorizing them for believing that Jesus is the reason for the season, I think it is high time we abandoned the public schools for private and Christian schools.