Here's the link. I commented on it via Facebook:
by Will Isern
The Escambia County School Board has had enough of David Suhor, but they may soon be seeing him in court.
Suhor, a musician, singing telegram and self-described agnostic pagan pantheist, has made a habit of showing up to school board meetings with a prayer rug and delving into chanted prayers during invocations and public comment time. He wants the board to end its practice of opening meetings with prayer.
At the board's January meeting, Suhor chanted during an invocation by the rabbi Joel Fleekop who had been invited by board member Jeff Bergosh to open the meeting. The ongoing saga has been particularly heated between Suhor and Bergosh, who have gone back and forth trading barbs on their personal blogs.
"The ECSB is determined to do whatever they want (lead the room in CHRISTIAN prayer), regardless of the legality of such activities," Suhor wrote on his personal blog Thursday. "They even disregard their own attorney's advice to the contrary. The last thing they want to do is bring a policy for public discussion or answer letters. I foresee a lawsuit."
Suhor has enlisted the Freedom From Religion Foundation to his cause, and a FFRF staff attorney sent a letter to the school board's lawyer, Donna Waters, on Wednesday.
"Prayer at public school meetings is unnecessary, inappropriate, and as the board is discovering, divisive," the letter read. "Calling upon board members, as well as parents and students to pray is coercive, embarrassing, and beyond the scope of a public secular school system. . . . The board should cease prayer at board meetings."
At a recent workshop, the board discussed their options in dealing with Suhor in the future.
"I just want to say some brief things about what happened last month," Bergosh said. "It was infuriating to me. It was extremely disrespectful. It was an attack. It was an attack on my invited guest. . . . We've got to find a way to rein this person in. I understand people have a freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but when you cross the line and are disrupting a meeting and insulting invited guests, it must be shut down."
Waters advised the board their best option, legally, would be to do away with the opening prayers and instead have a moment of silence, but the board members were adamant they wanted to continue opening their meetings with an invocation.
"This month it's my decision to invite someone to give the invocation," board member Gerald Boone said. "I have no intention of compromising what I believe and what I've done for eight years because of the whims of one person that we would rather just go away. I don't care if he's here at every meeting until he's as white-headed as I am, I don't plan to compromise."
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