Reporters have been banned from her home — her mother is adamant on this point — so the McDonald’s across the street from Buffalo Grove High School has to serve as her impromptu media headquarters.
None of which is surprising, when you consider that Dawn Sherman is all of 14.
Her lawsuit challenging the new Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act in Illinois has already resulted in a temporary injunction blocking the law’s mandatory moment of silence for the 13,000 students in Township High School District 214. Now, she and the No. 1 atheist activist in Illinois — her father, Rob — are going after a bigger prize: They want the law struck down as unconstitutional.
During a wide-ranging after-school interview, the girl at the center of the legal battle proves quieter and more measured than her outspoken father, but no less spirited and determined.
“She’s a rugged individualist, and I say that in the most positive way,” says Dennis Northway, Dawn’s former middle school choir director, who once jokingly suggested to Dawn that she should sing in his madrigal choir at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park — and was shocked when she took him up on the offer.
