According to an interview recently conducted with SCUM OF THE EARTH frontman RIGGS, his 13 year old son was recently reprimanded by his eighth grade art teacher for wearing an inappropriate tee shirt in the class room. The art teacher, Mrs. Christy Lawrence allegedly insulted the student in front of his peers, dragged him out of class into the hallway and forced him to pray on his knees for forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Later that day, the Principle had commented that “we will have to have a board meeting about the situation”.
“This is rediculous”, says RIGGS. “Mountain Home Junior High is a public school, and there’s supposed to be a separation between church and state. The shirt my son was wearing was for my band, SCUM OF THE EARTH. It didn’t contain any foul language, it’s simply a drawing of a monster on a cross… and nothing more. You would think that someone who’s an art teacher would have some understanding of the concept of freedom of speech, and artistic freedom of expression, however this lady is clearly a religions nutcase. It’s just another example of how these people have infiltrated public schools, government and politics in an effort to force their own agenda upon anyone who doesn’t necessarily believe exactly what they do – regardless of what the First Amendment of the United States Consitiution says.”
The First Amendment RIGGS refers to specifically states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
“This whole town is whacked… we’re an honest law-abiding family that doesn’t cause any harm to anyone around here. Just because I have lots of tattoos, long hair and play in a rock band, the entire town thinks we worship Satan and sacrifice animals to the devil. It’s difficult for me to see what’s going on in this country, how the religious right is slowly making it acceptible to violate the very laws upon which our great country was founded. I can respect freedom of religion, but shouldn’t that also mean that religious people should respect non-religion or other religions as well? Time and time again, we see that the religions right clearly doesn’t believe so.”
When asked if RIGGS and his son were considering legal action against the school system, RIGGS replied, “It’s not entirely out of the question. I mean, the manner in which this woman handled the situation was extremely inappropriate, the stuff she said and what she did. It’s something we’re looking into right now, and considering contacting the Americal Civil Liberties Union Foundation.”
