EDITORIAL: How will Greencastle-Antrim react?

The Greencastle-Antrim School District has been pushing the anti-bullying message hard for a few years now. In 2010 the district was out to “change the culture so bullying isn’t tolerated.” Last week the school board and the Greencastle-Antrim community, along with its culture and traditions, were the victim. The board received a demand that it remove its practice of reciting The Lord’s Prayer prior to its meetings.

When our students are bullied, we tell them to do things like tell the bully to stop, stand up for yourself, be brave and tell an adult. How will our school board react?

While the answer to this question by many in our community may be very simple, we are left to wonder about many things as the school board decides what, if any, reaction it will have.

— We wonder why atheist groups with no obvious presence in our community are even interested in Greencastle-Antrim. We understand that one of the atheist-activists has ties to the area. He was also seen at at least one school board meeting in the past few months.

— We wonder why atheist groups with no obvious presence in our community need to do any bidding in Greencastle-Antrim. The representatives of the Harrisburg-area atheist groups who came to Greencastle-Antrim with their demand claimed to have been speaking up for those who live here and who are offended by the prayer. They said those local residents were afraid to speak up. We wonder why anyone would be scared to exercise their free speech on a subject that they feel strongly about.

— We wonder why atheist groups need to take it upon themselves to be enforcing a court ruling, or their perception of a court ruling. There are always gray areas in our laws and court decisions. That’s part of what makes our system the best in the world.

— We wonder, too, why a Harrisburg television station would make the trip to cover an issue in Greencastle-Antrim. Of course they are welcomed to cover any public meeting here, however it’s obvious they were alerted by the atheist groups.

— Therefore, we wonder why the atheists groups needed to bring their complaint in such a public way. What is the goal?

We urge our children to be pro-active in the face of bullying. What will we as adults do?

Again we wonder, how will our school board react?

Perhaps more importantly, how will our Greencastle-Antrim community react?