Cupertino, CA., 12/15/04: A group of concerned parents at Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, California, have organized "We, the Parents", a grassroots effort aimed at correcting the misconceptions created in the media and related to a recently publicized lawsuit that they feel have put their children and the school staff at risk.
The school, which ranks in the top 2% in the state despite being in one of the lowest funded districts, has received over 3000 hostile messages, many of them profane, since the lawsuit was first disclosed around Thanksgiving.
"The public has the right to hear the other side of the story. Our principal and the members of the school board are reluctant to publicly refute any of the claims because they are involved in this lawsuit. We, therefore, see it as our responsibility to set the record straight: The Declaration of Independence has not been banned at our school" said Maria Segal, a Christian mother of three and spokesperson for the organization.
"We, the Parents" believes their school was targeted by an out-of-state multi-million dollar legal group that has sued other schools before for the purpose of advancing what the parents think is a political agenda.
"We have been wrongly portrayed as a school that has banned founding documents of our nation and that wants to take God out of the classroom and none of those assertions are true!" expressed Richard Crouch, a founder of the group. "We have the Declaration of Independence posted in our library, as well as the Constitution, and both documents are, and always have been, in the textbook used by all our fifth grade teachers and approved by the state and the board. We say "under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance. We had many Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations last week and a holiday sing-along on Friday. Some of our students participate in an after school Christian Club which meets on campus. How is this taking God away from the classrooms?" asked Crouch.
The group plans to set up a website where the public can read about the school as well as the community where it functions. They plan to host a series of forums for the public where members of the community can express their concerns, ask questions and get clarification from the parents themselves. The first of these community forums will take place in January.