As you may know See You at the Pole – a student-led, nationwide prayer event help at the school’s flagpole before the school day begins – was held on Sept. 26th. Although it is primarily for middle and high school students, many elementary school students are joining in this event. A couple of students from my church came and asked me to help them organize and publicize the event they were having at their school. I was more than happy to accommodate them and whipped out some flyers for them to hand out before and after school to their classmates. Something as simple as a flyer caused a bit of a stir in our quiet litte south Georgia town.
I got a call from a student-leader’s parent who said that the flyer had been confiscated by his teacher as he passed them out to his classmates before school started. They were then sent to the principal’s office where she said that the flyers were not approved and could not be passed out in school. Well, after some quick research, a call to the American Center for Law and Justice, and with the Carmen song “Our Turn Now” as my anthem, I made a call to the principal.
It was a civil discussion, but I did stand my ground and inform her that students have every legal right to share the gospel on school grounds before and after school. She assured me that it was a misunderstanding and that the student could indeed pass out the flyers the next day. The happy ending is that at our local elementary school, more than 65 parents and students came to See You at the Pole (that’s more that was at the some of the local high schools and middle schools). Even better…one of the attendees was the principal.
I am glad to hear about more elementary schools getting involved in SYATP. The kids in our church have been getting together for SYATP at about 10 schools in the St. Louis area.
Interesting enough, the public school where my children attend has a Christian principal. He suggested that we make party invitations, since many of the kids hand out birthday invitations every day at school. So we made with “You’re Invited,” blasted really big on the front side, and all of the SYATP information on the back. (postcards 4 to a page) Many of the teachers have an ‘everyone gets one or no one gets one” policy so this helped us get the word out even more.
Our next step is to get parents at the PTA/Parent’s Club, etc to get involved. We know if the kids are passionate about it, and the parents are more informaed, then we will shake the nation!
If I ever need legal representation, I will not retain a lawyer…it will be you Daniel that I come calling to for assistance. If you ever decide to run for any office, let me know so I can be your campaign manager!