Not everybody is warming up to the claims and ideas expressed in "The Thaw" video, which was featured in Sunday's Press after being spotlighted by Fox News.

The video is an advertisement for a Christian ministry and educational alternative whose genesis allegedly was sparked last year by a Kootenai County public high school teacher requiring students to write an essay called "I Believe" without using the words "God" or "Jesus Christ" anywhere in the essay.

If one teacher's act was the catalyst, then the teacher and school should be identified so the veracity of the claim can be established, and if it's true, then "the rest of the story" might be told. Yet Gary Brown, whose organization Reach America produced "The Thaw," has declined to disclose that information "for the sake of confidentiality of the kids."

The trouble doesn't stop there. Also disturbing are allegations from the kids featured in the video that they have been persecuted in public schools because they are Christians; that it's common for them to be bullied because of their Christian beliefs. This news is akin to the citizens of Beijing announcing they're being persecuted by Tibetan monks, or Chicago Cubs fans saying they're being bullied by Mets fans at Wrigley Field.

Kootenai County is awash in Christendom to the almost complete exclusion of any other belief system. No doubt, kids are bullied these days, and kids are persecuted for reasons we adults might find hard to imagine. But Christians being cast out by Christians because they're Christians? The rallying cry behind The Thaw's appeal to perpetually victimized children lacks the ring of truth or, again, deserves specificity in its allegations followed by much deeper explanation.

Promoting an alternative to mainstream public education because of that alternative's merits is one thing, but that's not what The Thaw is doing. The Thaw is promoting an alternative based on damning allegations against the public institutions themselves. Where's the proof? Where is even a strong hint of intent to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Contrary to statements made in the video, public school kids may pray to whomever they wish. There is absolutely no law or rule against that.

Here's what is prohibited: Nobody in our public schools can be forced to pray to somebody else's idea of a deity. That's a cornerstone not just of the U.S. Constitution, but of Christianity itself.