Prior NHS graduation in the GA. neptunematters.com
By Charles Layton (Re-post from 2011) Blogfinger staff/editor.
Neptune school board president John Daniels announced Wednesday night that the board and the American Civil Liberties Union have reached agreement.
This means the district’s senior class will graduate in the Ocean Grove Great Auditorium on June 17, as previous classes have done for at least the past seven decades.
Daniels made the announcement at the start of a Board of Education meeting at Summerfield School. The ACLU, he said, “has accepted the compromise that we have made… This case is closed, ladies and gentlemen. We won’t be talking about this any more.”
Graduation plans had been thrown into turmoil in recent weeks over the ACLU’s threat to bring suit over the inclusion of religious rites and symbols in past graduation ceremonies and over the use of the Great Auditorium — a house of worship — by a public school. The ACLU was acting in behalf of a grandmother of some students.
The deal that was reached on Wednesday gave the ACLU and its client nearly everything they had been seeking. According to ACLU attorney Jeffrey Pollock, he and his co-counsel, Seval Yildirim, received a compromise proposal recently that contained the following provisions:
- The board would agree that this and future graduation ceremonies would be free of religious content, i.e., prayers and Christian hymns.
- The Great Auditorium could be used for graduations if the two large religious signs on either side of the stage were covered during the ceremony, the large cross outside the building remained unlit, and the choir door to the left of the main entrance near the gazebo was also covered.
The ACLU had earlier asked that the cross on the front of the building be covered, but the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns the building, refused to do that. Having the cross unlit instead of covered turned out to solve that problem.
Pollock said that he and Yildirim took the board’s offer to their client on Tuesday, the client agreed to the terms, and on Wednesday they notified the board’s attorney.
Pollock said in an interview that if the board accepted those terms, “I think this matter may be quickly and easily resolved.”
Daniels said, in addressing the audience at Wednesday night’s meeting, that the board had not “folded” during negotiations. But, he said, “times have changed,” apparently referring to court rulings involving the separation of religion and government. He spoke very briefly and did not mention the terms of the agreement.
Pollock said, quoting an old saying about negotiations, “To me the sign of a good offer is that both parties are unhappy.”
One of the last sticking points, apparently, was the ACLU’s demand that the two electronic signs on either side of the stage be covered. Some said there were concerns that this could not be done without risking damage to those signs. These are the signs that say, on one side, “Holiness to the Lord” and on the other side “So be ye holy.”
In recent days the dispute had begun attracting national attention. Fox News had featured interviews and reports about the issue, and two legal groups associated with fundamentalist Christian organizations had offered to defend the school district free of charge if the ACLU followed through with its threat to bring suit.
The grandmother first raised the church-and-state issue last summer at a school board meeting. Shortly thereafter, the ACLU began negotiating in her behalf.
Although the school board rather quickly agreed to eliminate religious references from the graduation ceremony, the question of religious signs in and about the Great Auditorium remained a sticking point until the very end.
Pretty young person here who doesn’t know TOO much about how exactly everything works, but…. this is a public school, correct? This school is funded by the state with tax payers’ money, correct? So all of the non-Christians of New Jersey are partially paying for this school to function, yes? And are they also partially paying for this graduation? Sorry, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
It is too bad that this tradition of the school has to stop. The building looks beautiful. If you want to fix it, just make it a private school. If the school is as well respected as FOX NEWS makes it out to be, I’m sure that people would definitely pay to attend.
The above observer is forgetting a fundamental point; namely, we in Ocean Grove at the Great Auditorium stand for our faith and have always done so. The Board of Ed chooses to come to our town/auditorium for the graduation. If anyone is uncomfortable with seeing our symbols of faith then don’t attend. Why should someone “suddenly” decide, after so many decades, that they are “uncomfortable” with the sight of the cross, holiness signs?
And since when was the KKK a religion?
The suggestion that offended parents meet separately for their child to receive a diploma is exactly what the First Amendment exists to prevent. If the historic building belonged to the KKK, would that make this clearer? Not everyone believes Jesus is God or that there even is a god. The Constitution protects their right not to be forced to endure crosses in their faces in order to participate.
As for comfort, the auditorium reaches over 90 degrees and half the graduates are out of sight on the second story sidelines. Parents suffer for an hour to see their graduates for 30 seconds as they cross the stage. T
I agree with all the outrage. But it’s done, and now the focus should be on these graduates. Let nothing interfere with *their* day. I’ll bite my tongue until the (when do they graduate? The 16th?) 17th. And believe me, it hurts.
I just can’t believe that we have given in to this! Where are all the pastors, board members and administrators of the CMA who claim to be strong in the faith?????
What role models have we demonstrated to our young people!!!!!!
I sure hope we are not putting rental money over our beliefs. Many of us moved to OG to be in a Christian community, no one has asked for people of other beliefs to move in, it is their choice. Just don’t try to change our beliefs.
If anyone is offended by the cross, there are plenty of other places they can have their graduation, Neptune has a theater let them have it there, even if they have to limit the number of guests.
Shame on CMA for folding on the issue of not lighting the Auditorium’s cross and for covering its verses for Neptune’s high school graduation.
Over the Great Auditorium’s history, politicians, presidents, entertainers as well as pastors have graced its stage and the belief signs have not been offensive to anyone. How about every Saturday evening during the summer when we have prayer before performance? All stand and bow to acknowledge the Lord. No one is offended. And you know why? Because these signs are what the Great Auditorium stands for. If what we stand for in God’s Square Mile offends you then don’t come.
A couple of Sundays ago, in the Asbury Park Press, there was a page worth of comments regarding the ACLU vs CMA on this issue. All comments except for a couple were in support of CMA and not for the ACLU. There was also an editorial stating that the ACLU was reaching in regard to this. And CMA still folded.
It sounds like you are ashamed of your faith–except on Sundays, of course. Hmmm
Sal, Well said.
Mary Beth, I agree that the fact that the seniors will graduate in the Auditorium is cause for celebration. I’ll be there to cheer them on, and I am hopeful the nasty taste in my mouth will have dissipated by then.
I would think the covering of the signs would probably be done as part of the overall setup of the Aud for the graduation ceremony. And graduation ends relatively early; there will still be time to light the cross after the ceremony and give the sponsor their money’s worth.
To put all of our individual personal feelings aside for a second, how great is it that our outgoing senior class is going to get the graduation they wanted and that a truly unique and special 60-plus-years tradition will continue? Our senior class is extremely happy, and they are the folks whose opinion really matters.
Since I’m sure it’s not really an easy task, who is to pay the extra cost for the cover-up, oops, I mean covering up the signs? Don’t individuals pay to light the cross as a memorial to loved ones? How are they to feel when it isn’t lit that night? What will happen now if other people object? Break out the covers? Take the signs down for good?
If the grandmother and/or the student are so repulsed by the venue, then I am sure the principal could arrange an appointment in his office for a nice congratulatory handshake and the presentation of the student’s diploma.
I agree with Sal….the ACLU needs to be challenged and nothing should be covered. Plus I feel covering a cross is a gross insult to everything that the cross stands for…we need religion, and looking at a giant cross should be a pleasant vision regardless of religion.
Well, the lawyers and the politicians have done a really good job of making the CMA the bad guys if they refuse to change their building. I suggest that the CMA try to comply for this year because many of this year’s graduates have invited friends and family thinking they would have plenty of comfortable seats. However I think the CMA should make it clear that this is a one time agreement. It Is sad that the grandma who started all of this may not get to comfortably see her graduate next year and I will not in 2014.
Somehow I do not see myself climbing bleachers in the broiling sun. I did it for middle school grad, but we will all be four years older.
Lit or unlit, the cross is clearly visible at 6PM in June regardless. Covering the two signs inside is crazy. How is “Holy Be Thou” offensive to anyone? Only unholy people would be offended and I don’t thing the CMA is used to taking direction from unholy people. This whole issue is even embarrassing the ACLU with its ridiculousness.
That sounds like a fair and lawful solution to me.