She objected -- under pressure in class, facing a Grade F it seems (as she understood it) -- that God is real, and that there is evidence (including Scripture) as to the reality of God.
It is worth adding further documentation from the local Fox26 report, to show that the assignment (despite what Principal and Board Leadership stated) was designed for assessment, including right after the Cheetah is the fastest land animal, God is Real:
After effort I found a video report by Fox26 -- who indicate corroboration by other families of students -- that I believe will embed:
Second Fox26 Local station Report:
WND Reports:
12-year-old Jordan Wooley’s teacher assigned a quiz at West Memorial Junior High School asking students to label statements as “fact, assertion, or opinion.”
Statements included “America is the most free country on Earth,” and “there is a God.” Jordan said the assignment was to identify “factual claims, commonplace assertions and opinions.” She said she originally answered the statement “there is no God” in two ways, according to a local CBS News affiliate.
Jordan labeled the latter as “fact,” and her teacher told her to mark it otherwise, or face an “F” grade. [--> those who deny this need to give the answer conspicuously missing on the Fox26 video, when it was pointed out that the section in question was rated at 20 points, normally indicative of a significant grade weighting]
“I said it was fact or opinion,” Jordan told the station. “Based on my religion and based on what I think and believe, I do not think it was a commonplace assertion.”
Wooley says her seventh-grade reading teacher said both her answers were wrong and that she had to admit God wasn’t real.
“It was really confusing to me at first because I didn’t really know what to do, so the first thing I did was tell my mom,” Wooley said.
The child’s mother, Chantal, said, “That a kid was literally graded against her faith in God in a classroom so who would want to be known. … So the kids were caught in a Catch-22. If they argued their faith, they were being told they were arguing against their faith and that happened in the classroom.”
Jordan later testified in front of Katy Independent School District’s Board of Education meeting on how her friend went home crying after the assignment for being forced to express doubts about her faith.
The Katy ISD released a statement saying, in part, that the assignment was intended to encourage critical thinking and dialogue and not question any students' religious beliefs [--> note, the reality of God is not a matter of mere belief, but seriously warranted conclusion, the terms of this Board answer are themselves quite revealing].
"Still this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued," Katy ISD said in its statement.It seems obvious to me, just on the question sheet and the obvious distraught behaviour followed by rallying of courage to directly challenge a school board, that the girl is telling the substantial truth.
The district backed the teacher, who said the assignment was "misunderstood." However after its investigation, "the district said the particular assignment was 'unnecessary for achieving the instructional standard' and pointed out that the teacher is actually a Christian and the assignment was misunderstood," reported Christian Today.
"The teacher is distraught by this incident, as some commentary has gone as far as to vilify her without knowing her, her Christian faith, or the context of the classroom activity," Frailey said during a news conference on Wednesday.
Now Jordan is experiencing fallout from her refusal to back down from her story and for standing up for her beliefs. She says she has been bullied and told to kill herself after media coverage of the incident.
Now two things are very interesting.
First, on a complaint being made, there was denial (which has of course been trumpeted far and wide as fact . . . just google it), and in the video young Jordan is seen complaining to the school board that they misrepresented the truth and her classmates felt intimidated not to tell the truth as to what happened when she was challenged for giving a politically incorrect, conscience and conviction driven answer. As in, here comes the isolation and shaming tactic.
Second, it is unreasonable to expect first formers or the equivalent to know off the bat the serious arguments for the reality of God AND it is utterly wrong -- even devilish -- to pressure people to deny sincerely held beliefs that those who compose curricula know or should know (likely, they don't, itself a failure of duties of care . . . ) have significant grounding and ought not be dismissed with in effect a blame the victim one liner. Where, anyone who is aware of current education policy and court rulings will know that the evidence and argument showing that substantial case will be censored out of the public school setting, backed by all sorts of activists and agendas. (And I intend to follow up on this subject, but for the moment cf. here on at 101 level.)
Rape of conscience and intellectual integrity, backed up by in effect blame the victim and then it's all a little misunderstanding.
Here we see how the classroom is now a battleground with message dominance tactics coming from those who are patently atheistical and/or influenced unduly by such . . . including the classroom teacher who seems to have a Christian profession. END
PS: It should be noted that the Board treated this young Miss with courtesy when she spoke, though the issued ruling seems questionable.
