Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[TBO]

A Gibbs High School science teacher was arrested today on charges that he engaged in inappropriate behavior with a student, police said. The official charge against Darren Snieszko, 25, of St. Petersburg, is interference with custody, a felony. According to an arrest affidavit, Snieszko encouraged a 16-year-old girl attending Gibbs High to go on what he called a field trip to Lowry Park Zoo, but there were no other students or teachers involved with the trip, the affidavit states.

Snieszko paid for the girl’s admission with his Pinellas County teacher’s discount card, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt. The spokesman characterized the outing as a date.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I’ve never heard of a 2 person field trip. What is in the water in Florida?

[Yahoo]

Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.

If the plate is approved, Floridawould become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that’s not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it “sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state” and, second, gives the “appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Come on ACLU.  Just when we agreed on something last week you go off and do this.  I wouldn’t put one of these on my car but to think that a tag is endorsing a religion is crazy.  There are tags for every college and sports team.  Now, I don’t want one on my car just because if I’m driving wild I don’t want to be a bad witness.

What do you think?