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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
TESTING THE FAITH
White House: No-pray zone
Secret Service boots out students who asked God to bless president
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By Matthew Mittan of The Asheville Tribune
� 2001 TRIBUNE PAPERS, INC.
Eleven high-school students, two parent escorts and a teacher were abruptly
escorted out of the White House this week after daring to stop during a tour
of "the people's house" to pray for its chief resident, President George W.
Bush.
When students from Merrimon Christian School in Asheville, N.C., left for the
nation's capital Monday, little could they foresee the controversy they would
find themselves in. Being booted from the White House and having one of their
chaperons "pounded" and yelled at by security agents was the furthest thing
from their minds.
Their tour of the White House State Floor, where major political receptions
take place, was nearly completed, and they were waiting to go on to the next
part before exiting the White House. Ahead of the MCS students was another
group. According to Ms. Pat Aldrich, a high school teacher at MCS, the group
ahead of them had loitered around for about 10 minutes before moving on with
the tour. Once that group left, MCS students decided to join hands in a
circle -- off to the side of the big room but not beyond the public area --
and pray. Aldrich told the Asheville Tribune by cell phone yesterday, "We
[had] decided we were going to pray for the president [while in the White
House]." She also said that they wanted to thank God for giving them safe
travel to Washington, D.C.
That's when things took a sudden turn.
"Larry, the group leader, started with his prayer first and each person was
going to say a brief prayer," Aldrich, whose prayer was second, continued.
"We had been there less than a minute (praying quietly)" when a Secret
Service agent came over and, according to the teacher, started physically
intervening in the prayer.
"He was pounding on her (Mrs. Renee Gordy, a parent) shoulder while I was
praying, yelling 'MA'AM! MA'AM! MA'AM!'" she said. Aldrich completed her
brief prayer before the group let go of each others' hands.
Aldrich says that the official then "rudely" began ordering the group to
"take it outside" and that they couldn't stay in the room. When it was
mentioned that the group before them had lingered in the room a full 10
minutes, the security officer is said to have yelled at the group, saying, "I
make the rules here, and you obey them!"
"We feel like we were told to leave because we were praying," Aldrich said.
"He was rude beyond all belief."
She said of the students, "The kids were angry that this is supposed to be
'the people's house' and they treated us this way." Aldrich said that the
agent was particularly rude toward one female student, Jessica Banks.
Scott Thompson, Headmaster of MCS, was fully supportive of the group's prayer
and the response of his students and adult chaperons to the incident.
Asked if Aldrich might face any consequences with the school upon her return,
Thompson said, "None whatsoever!" In fact, when Aldrich asked Thompson if she
could draft a letter of complaint against the White House, he gave her
immediate approval to do so. He also said that if the kids were feeling any
anger, fear or curiosities about the confrontation that they should also be
encouraged to write to government officials.
Thompson continued, "John Locke wrote about toleration. Toleration is the
ability to discuss our differences and tell someone why you believe the way
you do. I think we've redefined toleration in America today. Tolerance now
means not talking about things you believe in." He believes that is what
happened Tuesday at the White House, that there was a lack of tolerance of
public prayer.
Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has his office "aggressively pursuing answers" as
to what, exactly, led to this confrontation between White House security and
the student group from Asheville.
Michael Briggs, a spokesman from Edwards' Washington, D.C., office told the
Tribune that Edwards is co-chair of the Senate Prayer Breakfast and that he
very much wants to "find out what happened." Briggs said that their office
had contacted the Secret Service and was waiting for a call back from them.
Edwards later called the Tribune to add, "I can't imagine what the objection
would be to students praying on government property. I pray regularly on
government property. I want to make sure this doesn't happen again."
The office of Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., has told MCS that this is an
executive branch issue and they are from the legislative branch. Taylor's
Asheville office had little to no comment on the situation and offered no
referrals to the Tribune for official comment. Rep. Taylor declined an
opportunity to discuss the issue with the Tribune early yesterday morning.
North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican, is also pursuing an
explanation from the White House. A spokesman from Helms' Washington office
said, "The process is underway; we're looking into it." The official said
that the senator "will not drop this until he gets an answer."
The White House Visitor Center referred calls to the White House Press
office. Jeanie Mamo of the White House Press Office had "no comment" and
referred the Tribune to the Secret Service. Jeff Banocy, White House Watch
Commander, had "no comment" and referred this reporter to the Secret Service
Press Office.
There, Mark Connolly, spokesman for the Secret Service, told the Tribune,
"We're not aware of any specific incident." He continued by saying that it is
very routine for Secret Service officers to keep people moving and to keep
them out of restricted areas.
In response to the groups' claim that they weren't in a restricted area,
Connolly said, "If a group was asked to keep moving, the officer is focusing
on keeping the tour moving." In regards to the claim that the group in front
of MCS had loitered about for 10 minutes and was never asked to move on, yet
they were told to leave in less than a minute, Connolly stated, "I can't
comment on any specifics because I can't confirm whether it happened or
didn't happen."
Connolly concluded by reiterating that the focus is on keeping the tour line
moving: "We get over 1 million visitors annually."
He said they just want to make sure that everyone gets to see the whole tour.
He also said that he was not aware of any contact to his office by Helms or
Edwards.
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