Abington+School+District+vs.+Schempp

Howdy, ya'll!! Cowboy Danny B here to tell y'all about the Abington vs. schempp court case. So, what makes this case so interesting??? Well, first of all, it deals with the first amendment. And by that, I mean THE VERY FIRST AMENDMENT!!! Which is, of course, Freedoms!! Freedoms mean freedom of speech, so I can tell someone to PO if I wanna. Freedom of Press, so I can start The Texas Times, as long as everything I write is true. Freedom of assembly, which means me and my buds can go party it up in the Texas Roadhouse. Freedom of expression, so if I walk into New York City with a Red Sox jersey if I want. And finally, Freedom of religion, Which means, you pick your religion. This is also what this Court Case is all about. Ya’ll should see here, this mess began when my ol’ buddy Edward Schempp, of Abington, filed suit against the Abington school district, because the school made all students read 10 verses of the bible EVERYDAY! Personally, I agree with him, that violated the 1st amendment and 14th amendment. But, the law: 24 Pa. Stat. 15-1516, as amended, Pub. Law 1928 protected it. Oh, forgot to mention to ya’ll, this all happened way back in the day, before even Mr. Smith was born!! They filed to the court in 1958, but it did not reach the supreme court until 1963, wow right! So yes, it was a longggggggggggg court case, that got all the way to the supreme court. But you see, conflicts arose, because the district judge had a kid that went to the same school. So there was another district trial, then a state trial, which both agreed that schempp was right, but the school wanted to go to the supreme court, because otherwise, they’d have to pay for all of the court costs. Schemmp won in the final court case, and the law was changed. The school could no longer make students read the bible. The press put out a paper stating the previous court case involving school religions: __Engel vs Vitale’__ influenced the courts decision, however, this was never confirmed.

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The U.S. of A. congress changed over 150 schools laws after this court case.Abington v. Schempp was used as precedent for similar cases like [|Board of Education v. Allen]  and [|Lemon v. Kurtzman]  in the decades that followed. The three part Lemon test had its basis in the jurisprudence of Abington v. Schempp. Under the test, the constitutionality of a given church-state law is weighed by three criteria: sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the government in religious activity. ======

Dan Braun

Cori Glidden November 9.2011 Abington School District vs. Schempp

This case covers the 1st and 14th Amendments. The 1st Amendment says that we have the right to freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. The 14th Amendment was made in 1848 and guaranteed all rights to citizens. This especially included the right to vote to all males 21 years of age and older. Mr. Edward Schempp felt that his son’s rights were violated by having to participate in religious works that he didn’t believe in. The Abington School District versus Schempp court case had to deal with the 1st and 14th Amendment. Edward Schempp was outraged that his son was forced to participate in the religious practices in his public school. He and his father did not believe in Jesus Christ and the son was punished if he refused to participate. The Abington School district consistently used the King James Version of the Bible and any teacher who refused to participate in the reading of the Bible was fired immediately. This constant fight about religions being practiced in public schools was originally argued February 27-28 in 1963. The defendant fought that the reading of 10 versus from the Bible every morning did not affect the students’ freedom of religion. Furthermore, he said that the students were free to interpret the Bible any way they want. The defendant thought that they were developing the minds and morals for the students. To get the final decision, the school and Schempp had to go through many stages. At the federal district court level, Abington School District lost. Pennsylvania lawmakers had the school add a provision that allowed students to get permission from the parents to be excused from religious practices. This did not satisfy Mr. Schempp so he appealed the court case and it went to the state level. Here, the decision went in Schempp’s favor again. Abington School District did not like the outcome and appealed to Supreme Court. Here the final decision was made. The outcome was an 8 to 1 ratio in favor of Schempp. This final decision was made June 17, 1963. So after months of trial, the Supreme Court made the final decision that the readings of the Bible in the morning were unconstitutional. It took away the students’ rights to freedom of religion. By: Cori Glidden

**Name:** Kendra Papocchia **Date:** November 13, 2011

**Court Case:** Abington School District vs. Schempp

//**What amendment did this case deal with and what does it say?**//

The Abington School District vs. Schempp case dealed with the first and fourteenth amendment. The first amendment says we have the freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press, and expression. The fourteenth amendment says all rights are guaranteed to citizens. This court case is mostly dealing with the freedom of religion. //**What is the background of the case? Summarize what happened!**//

In Abington School District at least ten bible verses had to be read by the teachers daily. Edward Schempp's son, Ellory Schempp was forced to participate in the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Ellory did not believe in Jesus Christ or the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. For his refusal to participate during the recitation of the Lord's Prayer he was disciplined. His request to be excused during the exercise was denied. Children could not ask to be excused during the recitations. They were disciplined if engaged in any protests of the exercises. <span style="color: #280099; font-family: calibri,serif; font-size: 11pt;">//**What was the final decision of the Supreme Court and why did they decide this?**//

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: times new roman,serif;">Edward Schempp won in this court case against Abington School District after many months of trial. The court ruled eight to one against allowing the reading of the Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in schools. The Supreme court made the final decision that the school could no longer make students read from bible everyday. They found the reading of the bible in schools unconstitutional and it took away the childrens freedom of religion.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This case was about the freedom of religion. Mr. Schemp was claiming that his son’s religious rights were taken away by the school. They were required to take place in Christian prayers every day. This is why the court case happened. Kids were told to participate in the prayer no matter what their religion. If they did not participate in the prayer they would face displinary actions. Mr. schemp was not happy with this at all he hired a Jewish chycrist to try to figure out if this would affect his son and he said that Jewish kids that are exposed to Christian prayer and religion that it could severely hurt them. So Mr. Schemp took the school to court. When it reached supreme court they ruled in favor of Mr. Schemp. The court said that children should be able to be excused from these prayers. They concluded that this situation was taking away their freedom of religion. This is one of the most important right in the constitution and the school was attempting to take this away. If I were on this court I would’ve decided the same exact thing. It was un-constitutional and was hurting the different religions by just reading the Christian bible. Schemp was the winner in this court case and now public schools can not tell kids what religion to believe in. John Ball (fuzzy)
 * Name: Codi Odell**
 * Date: November 18, 2011**
 * Court Case: ** __Abington School District v. Schempp__


 * What amendment did this case deal with and what does it say?**
 * This case had to do with the 1st and 14th amendment. The 1st amendment deals with the peoples freedoms. The 14th amendment deals with****states and local governments from depriving people of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness.**


 * What happened is Abington School was making the children read the bible and pray this is prohibited under the 1st amendment. Of these children Edward Schempp's son, Ellory Schempp was forced to pray. The thing is is that the Schempps don’t believe in god, or Jesus. **


 * What was the final decision of the Supreme Court and why did they decide this?**
 * The final decision was that the reading of the bible or praying in public school was not allowed/prohibited .the supreme said that the school was taking away the children’s rights.**