LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The adventures of boy wizard Harry Potter can stay in Gwinnett County school libraries, despite a mother's objections, a judge ruled Tuesday.Laura Mallory, who argued the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft, said she still wants the best-selling books removed and may take her case to federal court.
"I maybe need a whole new case from the ground up," Mallory said. The woman, who said two of her four children attend public schools in the county, was not represented by an attorney at the hearing.
The ruling by Superior Judge Ronnie Batchelor upheld a decision by the Georgia Board of Education, which had supported local school officials.
County school board members have said the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination.
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, tell stories of children with magic powers. They are the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association.
At Tuesday's hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
"I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again," Mallory said. "I think we need him."
Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing county school officials, said the judge has to respect their authority to leave the books on library shelves.
"I'm not here to defend Harry Potter," Sweeny said. "I'm here to defend the Gwinnett County Board of Education's right to make lawful decisions."
(bolding is mine, original article is here)
Only a Fundie would have this sort of logic.
You know, I'd rather have a million literate satanists running around than all the dumbass kids I see every day right now. People should be bitching about cartoons like Ed, Edd, and Eddie, not friggen novels like Harry Potter or Narnia.
BTW, Ms. Mallory, your god isn't my god.
FSM 4EVA!
Posted by Zoso at May 30, 2007 05:00 PMAmazing how she doesn't consider that the seperation of church and state would require REMOVING all GOD related materials as well...
the bible..."Dear god, it's me margaret.." everything CS Lewis...and so on. It would be seriously slim pickings....
Maybe she should move to China she won't find anything religious on their bookshelves.
Posted by: sarah at May 30, 2007 07:30 PMI know. It is the utter defiance of their own hypocrisy that just baffles me and makes me want to bash people like her in the head with a big fat clue stick.
What is it about religion that makes so many people so stupid? * shakes head *
Posted by: Zoso at May 30, 2007 08:06 PMLMFAO!!! Most people that pitched a fit about the Harry Potter books did this same thing. They bitched about how schools need to separate church and state and how these books should be banned because of their witchcraft content. Then they turn right around and say things like "God needs to be in children's lives" etc. My high school actually banned the Harry Potter series for a short while until they figured out that banning the book made kids flock to the public library to read it. Stupid Christian parents. (I live in a predominately Christian area and parents tend to raise hell if they think that something is 'wrongly' influencing and imprinting their helpless and utterly innocent clean slate minions, excuse me, children.)
Hell, my school even banned Korn t-shirts b/c of its supposed violent and promotes drugs and other crap. Or they could just say what they are really thinking (like my grandma) and say that it's the devil's music. (I've never laughed so hard as when I've heard that statement. I wanted to say "Yes grandma, the devil took precious time out of his day to invent heavy metal music. What absolute garbage. Then again that is my grandmother's favorite statement "The devil this, the devil did that." She even told me the devil created the tv show Gargoyles... The cartoon. Yeah, my grandma is a fundie to the extreme.) Anyways, then us high schoolers, being wannabe rebels and overall smartasses, wore Corn (as in on the cob) t-shirts. Until our school banned those too. Idiots.
Posted by: Mia at May 31, 2007 05:40 AM"I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again," Mallory said. "I think we need him."
Funny thing is, I doubt God would actually give a rat's ass about something so trivial as banning a children's book. Hell, I doubt he gives a rat's ass about the human race entirely - probably just does not care to deal with the stupidity any longer and has resigned to watch the drama unfold from afar.
...I'd probably do the same thing.
Posted by: Gamma Classic at May 31, 2007 05:13 PMYes Zoso, they banned corn on the cob t-shirts. Our school was public, but uber conservative and VERY religious. They banned those t-shirts because kids started to wear them in place of Korn t-shirts. It's a stupid thing to ban but hey, I never said our school system was run by brilliant people.
Posted by: Mia at June 1, 2007 12:02 AMHell, I doubt he gives a rat's ass about the human race entirely - probably just does not care to deal with the stupidity any longer and has resigned to watch the drama unfold from afar.
This is my thinking too. He's probably sitting up in heaven wondering why the dinosaurs had to die out. LOL
Posted by: Zoso at June 1, 2007 09:28 AM