I do not know what he specifically said, nor does the principal. She told me he said something to another student and ended the sentence with "Jesus christ." Like, "why did you take the ball? Jesus christ." The student he was speaking to then told him he can't say that because he can't take the lords name in vain. My son replied "Yes I can. I'm an atheist."
An argument then occurred between my son and the student he was speaking to, where the other student chastized my son for not believing in god. The two students took their discussion to the principal and the principal reprimanded and punished my son for taking the Lord's name in vain at school by denying him recesses. Later on this same student who my son said "Jesus Christ" to taunted him about his atheist beliefs and my son mooned him.
Yes, he mooned him.
The teacher called me and told me that I needed to pick up my son from school because he was suspended the rest of the day. He also failed character ed class and is not allowed to go to recess for the rest of the week.
When I arrived at the school I told the principal she behaved appropriately in response to the "mooning" incident. It was very odd behavior for my son. The teacher and myself both had a talk with my son about his conduct. I thanked her then took my son home and told my son he would be grounded. As we were driving home, my son informed me of some other details that the principal hadn't.
The principal had not told me about the religious discussion which had occurred between my son and this other boy, nor that the boy had taunted my son for being an atheist. She had only told me that he had mooned another boy. The way she had said it, it seemed like he did it out of nowhere for no reason.
I called the principal back and asked her some more questions. She informed me that Aden took the Lords name in vain and she reprimanded him and punished him for that along with the mooning incident. She told me it is against the rules at the school to take the Lords name in vain. She also told me she had a discussion with both children about tolerance but only my son was punished. Although I don't agree with the "lords name in vain" rule I did not argue with her. I told her Aden was going to be grounded and thanked her for handling the matter and being cooperative in giving me more information. I also do not disagree with the fact the other boy was not punished, although I do feel he should have been spoken to about bullying.
I have no problem with the punishments. My son needs to learn better ways of handling disagreements and obviously exposing oneself in public is a serious matter. I simply feel the "no lords name in vain" rule violates the separation between church and state and would like to see what I can do, if anything, to stop the policy.