2nd Grader Sent Home from School For Drawing picture of Jesus

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

 
TAUNTON, Mass. —  A Taunton man says his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick figure Jesus on a cross.
The man told the Taunton Daily Gazette his second-grader made the drawing after his teacher asked children to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas. He said the teacher at Maxham Elementary School thought the drawing was too violent.
The father, who asked that his name not be used, said the family had recently seen a Christmas display at a religious shrine.
Superintendent Julie Hackett said she could not discuss an individual student and the school followed proper protocol.
Toni Saunders, an educational consultant working with the family, said the teacher was alarmed because the boy drew Xs in the eyes of Jesus.
JMC Ministries Response
Written by: Miranda Caverley
The schools think it is ok to show children sex ed videos, and teach them how to have sex. Then we have books like the one about the 2 homosexual penguins raising a baby penguin that are in some schools across the country “required reading” for children.  But to draw a stick figure picture of Jesus on the cross is   “too violent”? When we have children being caught up in violence everyday in school like the post we made yesterday about youth violence in America.  We have video games, and movies promoting violence, murder, rape, and every kind of debauchery you can imagine. But a stick figure of Jesus on the cross is so violent this 8 year old had to be punished.  So severely that he was sent home from school and now is being put into psychiatric evaluation.
When I was in school I can remember children drawing pornographic pictures, pictures dripping with blood, and all kinds of horrible things.  But they weren’t sent home from school. They were disciplined yes, and the picture was then thrown away.  The child wasn’t sent home and made a spectacle of.   This picture clearly had nothing to that effect.  Yes it displayed Jesus on the Cross, but there was no blood and guts dripping.  No graphic displays of what really happened to him.  It was just a stick figure. 
What it comes down to is this.  If the child would have drawn a monster or something to that extent with blood dripping from his mouth.  Then he possibly wouldn’t have been punished this severely, but the fact he drew something “religious” and it is against the law in the U.S to have such a thing in our schools, that is why the boy was sent home.
If this was my child I would be proud that when he was asked to draw something that reminded them of Christmas he thought of Jesus. Because, if it weren’t for Jesus there would be no Christmas.
Luke 18:16
But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.