Old News: Marine NOT Suing School After Finding Out They Forced Child To Study Islam.

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Old News: Marine NOT Suing School After Finding Out They Forced Child To Study Islam.

Did a Marine named John Kevin Wood just sue the La Plata High School in Maryland because it forced his daughter to study Islam? No, that's not true: the lawsuit is real but it happened in 2016 and the suit was dismissed by the court.

The story reappeared in an article published by AWM on August 22, 2018 titled "Marine Is Suing School After Finding Out They Forced Child To Study Islam. Do You Support Him?" (archived here) which opened:

The separate of church and state dictates the religious affiliations should not be present in the public sector. The reason the Founding Fathers made this decree was because they wanted all people to have equal opportunity. If the state favored one religion over another, then people of the minority religion would become subject to discrimination.

Now a former Marine and his wife are fighting back after they believe a Maryland public school engaged in unconstitutional teachings.

They believe the La Plata High School was forcing their students to learn and do assignments about Islam.

Looking at the summary appearing on social media it is clear this is just an attempt to stir up emotions in order to get people to share and click without thinking:

Marine Is Suing School After Finding Out They Forced Child To Study Islam. Do You Support Him?

The separate of church and state dictates the religious affiliations should not be present in the public sector.

In reality the lawsuit ("WOOD v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CHARLES COUNTY") already happened in 2016, the full decision can be read here. The conclusion at the end reads:

IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Plaintiffs' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, ECF No. 17, and grant in part, and deny in part, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 28. A separate Order follows.

Here is some more background courtesy of The Washington Post in 2016:

This Marine vet was banned from his kid's school after objecting to Islam lessons

John Kevin Wood says his daughter's school has banned him from campus for more than a year, illegally punishing him for raising objections to classroom lessons about Islam. Now he's gone to court for help, asking a judge to remove the ban so he can watch his daughter graduate from high school.

Don't fall for the kind of people trying to sell you this as recent news, they are just trying to make a quick buck by profiting from people getting worked up and clicking on the ads surrounding their old story.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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