Stop. The. Madness. Just. Stop.

The news out from the train wreck that far too often passes for public education seems to come in waves, have you noticed?

First, we've got Christian students in Roswell, NM being punished for giving donuts to their teachers that included Bible verses.

Now, we've got a group of Massachusetts middle school kids who took a field trip to a mosque and ended up participating in Muslim prayers to Allah. They were supposed to be learning about the architecture and were going to observe a prayer service.

Instead, the students ended up getting a lecture on the prophet Muhammad and some of the boys participated in a midday prayer.

Bet the parents of any Jewish, Christian, atheist, or other non-Muslim kids loved this.

I know I would have. (Snark)

"You have to believe in Allah, and Allah is the one God," the students were told. A parent on the field trip caught the whole thing on videotape. At no point did any school official intervene in either the lecture or the praying. One has to wonder what would have happened had no parents been on the trip to report the truth.

Girls on the field trip were also told that Islam is pro-women. That's fine if you don't bother to share with them the recent story out of Iran, the one about Shakineh Ashtiani who's been on Iranian death row since 2006. She's the mother of two who's already been flogged and may still be stoned unless human rights activists can convince the Iranian government her sentence is overly harsh. Even if she ends up not being stoned, she'll likely be hanged. See, she's been accused of killing her husband and having an illicit relationship with another man, but neither charge has been proven. She's a woman, so that's all the evidence they need.

But I digress.

The field trip is part of a course in which students will visit a mosque, a synagogue, and meet with representatives of the Hindu religion. In a token gesture of inclusiveness, they'll get to hear a Christian gospel concert. Guess school officials think a few gospel songs will give kids a sufficient understanding of Christianity.

The school has apologized to parents for the mosque mishap, which is good. But what I don't understand is that why, after all the controversy surrounding religion in schools (not to mention the Ground Zero mosque flap), this school decided it could present such a course without getting itself in trouble. Smart much?

Kids in Massachusetts, like kids everywhere being educated on the taxpayer dime, have no business spending precious school hours in a mosque or any other house of worship. If we're going to keep Christmas trees and music and Stars of David and menorahs out of public schools, we need to keep ALL religious experiences out of public schools and all public schools out of religious experiences.

Can I hear everybody say, "Amen"?