BytheRules
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McClatchy-Tribune Business News - Editorial - Religion in School
January 17, 2007
Editorial - McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Everyone celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday Monday, recognizing the religious leader who led a faith-based campaign against government racial discrimination. Yet few noticed that Tuesday was Religious Freedom Day, created to celebrate the constitutional right, which 300 million of us still enjoy, just as King did.
In his proclamation to note Tuesday's observance, President George W. Bush called on all Americans to, "commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities in their schools, place of worship, neighborhoods and homes."
In their schools? Yes. As the Supreme Court noted in 1969, public school students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
Despite what you might have heard about "separation of church and state," the expression of religious beliefs remains a constitutionally protected right, even in public schools. Many school officials -- and more than a few judges and members of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union -- need an education on this point.
In Ohio, there's a case at Crestview schools, where a parent was unhappy that school officials put notices of religious groups' activities in student mailboxes -- just the same as the district handled notices of things like Little League baseball. The ACLU involved itself. The parent and the civil liberties organization received a favorable ruling in U.S. District Court in Toledo before the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in with common sense and reversed the ruling.
So over in Van Wert County you had school officials who understood what they were able to allow -- in fact, had to allow -- and some busybodies trying to block religion from public display. Unfortunately, the problems begin much earlier elsewhere.
Just last month, for example, school officials told an Illinois high-school senior that the statement she wanted in the yearbook was too religious and couldn't be submitted. About the same time, another high-school senior in Washington state wanted to write a religious children's book for a project, but was denied because the school's policy requires projects be sectarian, not religious.
In both cases, officials reversed their position after attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice based in Washington, D.C., sent letters to the schools explaining the U.S. Constitution guarantees students religious freedom and freedom of speech. These are unalienable, God-given rights, not privileges men permit or benefits the state bestows. ACLJ's mission is to "educate, promulgate, conciliate, and where necessary, litigate, to ensure that those rights are protected." The organization keeps very busy.
If anyone is unclear on the issue, the U.S. Department of Education sums these rights up this way:
-- Students can pray, read their Bible or other religious books and talk about their faith at school during school hours.
-- Students can organize prayer groups and religious clubs and announce their meetings. (We again refer you to the Crestview schools case.)
-- Students can express their faith in their class work and homework.
-- Teachers can organize prayer groups and Bible studies.
-- Students may be able to go off campus to have a Bible study during school hours.
-- Students can express their faith at a school event, including graduation ceremonies.
Now probably would be a good time for public school teachers, principals and other officials to mention these rights to their students. If nothing else, they're worth knowing for parents who want their children to express their religious beliefs, even at school.
ACLJ • American Center for Law & Justice
January 17, 2007
Editorial - McClatchy-Tribune Business News
Everyone celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday Monday, recognizing the religious leader who led a faith-based campaign against government racial discrimination. Yet few noticed that Tuesday was Religious Freedom Day, created to celebrate the constitutional right, which 300 million of us still enjoy, just as King did.
In his proclamation to note Tuesday's observance, President George W. Bush called on all Americans to, "commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities in their schools, place of worship, neighborhoods and homes."
In their schools? Yes. As the Supreme Court noted in 1969, public school students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
Despite what you might have heard about "separation of church and state," the expression of religious beliefs remains a constitutionally protected right, even in public schools. Many school officials -- and more than a few judges and members of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union -- need an education on this point.
In Ohio, there's a case at Crestview schools, where a parent was unhappy that school officials put notices of religious groups' activities in student mailboxes -- just the same as the district handled notices of things like Little League baseball. The ACLU involved itself. The parent and the civil liberties organization received a favorable ruling in U.S. District Court in Toledo before the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in with common sense and reversed the ruling.
So over in Van Wert County you had school officials who understood what they were able to allow -- in fact, had to allow -- and some busybodies trying to block religion from public display. Unfortunately, the problems begin much earlier elsewhere.
Just last month, for example, school officials told an Illinois high-school senior that the statement she wanted in the yearbook was too religious and couldn't be submitted. About the same time, another high-school senior in Washington state wanted to write a religious children's book for a project, but was denied because the school's policy requires projects be sectarian, not religious.
In both cases, officials reversed their position after attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice based in Washington, D.C., sent letters to the schools explaining the U.S. Constitution guarantees students religious freedom and freedom of speech. These are unalienable, God-given rights, not privileges men permit or benefits the state bestows. ACLJ's mission is to "educate, promulgate, conciliate, and where necessary, litigate, to ensure that those rights are protected." The organization keeps very busy.
If anyone is unclear on the issue, the U.S. Department of Education sums these rights up this way:
-- Students can pray, read their Bible or other religious books and talk about their faith at school during school hours.
-- Students can organize prayer groups and religious clubs and announce their meetings. (We again refer you to the Crestview schools case.)
-- Students can express their faith in their class work and homework.
-- Teachers can organize prayer groups and Bible studies.
-- Students may be able to go off campus to have a Bible study during school hours.
-- Students can express their faith at a school event, including graduation ceremonies.
Now probably would be a good time for public school teachers, principals and other officials to mention these rights to their students. If nothing else, they're worth knowing for parents who want their children to express their religious beliefs, even at school.
ACLJ • American Center for Law & Justice
