Briefly noted

Christian Century, August 25, 1999

* On July 29 the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 in favor of cutting some funding for the controversial U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia. The school has been the target of widespread criticism by human fights activists and church groups who charge that many of its graduates have been implicated in murders and egregious human rights violations. While welcoming news of the vote, opponents noted that the measure would only trim the school's budget, not close it. "This victory is just one step in the effort to close the School of the Americas," said Marilyn White, co-chair of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, which has been active in the campaign against the SOA. "If this amendment survives a conference with the Senate and makes it into the final version of the bill, it will still only reduce the funding by 10 percent. We still have work to do." That 10 percent, however, is specifically the money that would have been used to bring students from Latin America to the SOA.

* A Mississippi school board has told a Jewish 11th grader that he cannot display his Star of David pendant because it could be mistaken for a gang symbol. Harrison Central High School administrators ordered Ryan Green to wear the pendant under his shirt or not at all. On August 16 the local school board in Gulfport, Mississippi, backed the decision. "I don't appreciate calling the Star of David a gang symbol," said Ryan's father, Tom Green. "Ryan Green's Star of David necklace is clearly an expression of his Jewish faith, just as a necklace with a cross is an expression of Christian faith," added David Inggebretsen, who heads the Mississippi branch of' the American Civil Liberties Union. But Harrison County law enforcement and Gulfport school officials maintained that the star is also incorporated into some gang symbols, and that they hoped to avoid gang violence by banning all clothing or items depicting anything that might be construed as a gang symbol. "This is not a religious issue. This is a safety issue," said Frank Baskin, a spokesman for the Harrison County sheriff's office.

* An official inquiry into the murder of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in India earlier this year has dismissed suggestions that either the ruling Hindu nationalist party or an extremist Hindu sect was responsible for the slayings. Staines, an Australian who had been in India for some 30 years, and his two sons were burned to death in January as they slept in their jeep after attending a Bible study meeting. "There is no evidence any authority or organization was behind the gruesome killings," the Wadhwa Commission said in a report issued August 5. The report said that though the killing was "an act of hatred," it was not planned by any group. The commission took its name from Judge D. P. Wadhwa, who headed up the probe.

* An appeals court has overturned a judge's ruling that restricted the right of students to pray and lead prayers in the public schools of DeKalb County, Alabama. In a 3-0 ruling the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent to rewrite a portion of his 1997 ruling. "Permitting students to speak religiously signifies neither state approval or disapproval of that speech," the appeals court said. But the Atlanta-based court did not throw out DeMent's restrictions against school officials leading religious activities, including prayers.