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May 25th, 2011 - Bastrop High School, Louisiana

When a high school atheist tried to stop prayer at his graduation, he was harassed and kicked out of his house. But the atheist community stepped in.

[...]

Fowler's name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. As a direct result:

1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community.

2) One of Fowler's teachers has publicly demeaned him.

3) Fowler has been physically threatened. Students have threatened to "jump him" at graduation practice, and he has received multiple threats of bodily harm, and even death threats.

4) Fowler's parents have cut off his financial support, kicked him out of the house, and thrown his belongings onto the front porch.

[...]

The whole thing here.
Also here.

1. Night before the graduation this happend:
Code: Select all
2. then this:


iGod wrote:Fowler's name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. As a direct result:

1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community.

2) One of Fowler's teachers has publicly demeaned him.

3) Fowler has been physically threatened. Students have threatened to "jump him" at graduation practice, and he has received multiple threats of bodily harm, and even death threats.

4) Fowler's parents have cut off his financial support, kicked him out of the house, and thrown his belongings onto the front porch.

[...]



3. The day after or few days after, this happened:
Code: Select all
4. Then


Youtube wrote:NEWS ON THIS CASE: Currently Damon Fowler is residing in Dallas... A nice drive away from this shit hole Louisiana and all the small minded rednecks. Damon Fowler is pursuing his case through the FFRF and ACLU concerning his rights. Lets keep this video popular and spread it as much as you can in support of Damon! People need to know that it is wrong!!! I have disabled the rating because everyone was giving it a thumbs down which i understand ...............

Thee_UniQue wrote:All the parties involved have overreacted.

heroo wrote:what a moron. not because he is an atheist, but because he makes a problem out of nothing. so what if his school is having a prayer? isn't he happy that he graduated? he even threatened the school to call ACLU if they had the prayer, lol. serves him right the crybaby.

Thee_UniQue wrote:All the parties involved have overreacted.

inky wrote:Disgusting but given the setting, it's really no surprise. The town is overrun by crazy in-bred Jesus people who are impervious to reason and foreign to the word "tolerance".

When a high school atheist tried to stop prayer at his graduation, he was harassed and kicked out of his house. But the atheist community stepped in.

NuclearSilo wrote:Everyone should be like NuclearSilo, who loves to live in peace and always respect other's lifestyle

Thee_UniQue wrote:All the parties involved have overreacted.

NuclearSilo wrote:respect other's lifestyle

Azilius wrote:EDIT:
From the article:

Spoiler!

And perhaps most dramatically, Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta has established a scholarship fund for Fowler, so he can attend college despite being cut off financially by his parents -- and the response has been overwhelming. As of this writing, the atheist community has donated over $15,000. Essentially filling the role that his parents have abandoned.

Thank God there are still decent people in this world..

Azilius wrote:So wait if we dumb this down..

1. Someone warns a school that they're going to do something illegal and tries to have it stopped

2. People find out and ostracize him

3. Now he has no home, financial support and is being constantly threatened?


Ya he's the one overreacting for sure. God forbid people try to follow the law.


EDIT:
From the article:

Spoiler!

And perhaps most dramatically, Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta has established a scholarship fund for Fowler, so he can attend college despite being cut off financially by his parents -- and the response has been overwhelming. As of this writing, the atheist community has donated over $15,000. Essentially filling the role that his parents have abandoned.

Thank God there are still decent people in this world..

UnbeatableDevil wrote:

Thank God there are still decent people in this world..

1. Some nut demands school system to not do prayer during graduation
2. school says ok, people get pissed
3. Guy finds out everyone hates him, and atheist nuts from the internet gave him 15,00$

It would be interesting to find out if the prayer at graduation was a annual thing or not, cause in that case it would be obvious the guys a dumbass.

BuDo wrote:As an atheist he's no different than some religious nuts who feel they have go overboard to impose their beliefs on others.....He failed....All he had to do was chill and not make a big deal.

UnbeatableDevil wrote:They are nuts cause they are giving free money to a nut to try to support their nutty cause

BuDo wrote:As an atheist he's no different than some religious nuts who feel they have go overboard to impose their beliefs on others.....He failed....All he had to do was chill and not make a big deal.

Exactly.
If he didnt want to part take in the prayer, he could easily well, not taken part in it instead of being a whiny bish and complaining to the school board.

UnbeatableDevil wrote:They are nuts cause they are giving free money to a nut to try to support their nutty cause

BuDo wrote:As an atheist he's no different than some religious nuts who feel they have go overboard to impose their beliefs on others.....He failed....All he had to do was chill and not make a big deal.

Exactly.
If he didnt want to part take in the prayer, he could easily well, not taken part in it instead of being a whiny bish and complaining to the school board.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been vigilant in forbidding public schools and other agencies of the government to interfere with Americans' constitutional right to follow their own consciences when it comes to religion. In 1962, the justices ruled that official prayer had no place in public education.

This decision is widely misunderstood today. The court did not rule that students are forbidden to pray on their own; the justices merely said that government officials had no business composing a prayer for students to recite. The Engel v. Vitale case came about because parents in New York challenged a prayer written by a New York education board. These Christian, Jewish and Unitarian parents did not want their children subjected to state-sponsored devotions. The high court agreed that the scheme amounted to government promotion of religion.

In the following year, 1963, the Supreme Court handed down another important ruling dealing with prayer in public schools. In Abington Township School District v. Schempp, the court declared school-sponsored Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer unconstitutional.