Filed under: Complaints & Rants
I just happened to catch a radio sermon of some religious conservative preacher the other day. I’m not sure how it was tuned to such a fire-and-brimstone AM station. (What’s AM again? How far are they behind the times?) Once I was cued to the target in his cross-hairs I was had to keep listening. He was decrying public schools as liberal wastelands that corrupted our youth with a new religion of secular humanism. Wow.
Do people understand the reasoning behind the wall between church and state? Maybe not. Straight from the First Amendment it says, “Congress shall pass no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
I frequently hear people complain “Well, kids these days can’t even pray in public school anymore.” Well if you believe that, it’s a lie. Kids can pray anytime they want to and school officials cannot stop them. The free exercise of religion by a student cannot be stopped under the First Amendment. They can wear religiously related clothing and jewelry, they can talk openly about their religion, and they can talk to other students openly about religion. The only restriction is if there is what is termed a significant disruption caused at the school by the students’ religious talk. If the student was harassing another about religion, or if a student was loudly preaching and calling for repentance on the playground (a true story), these would not be examples of protected speech.
The difference is a teacher or school official cannot freely express their religious ideas or lead a prayer in school. This would violate the same Amendment according to the landmark court case Abington v. Shempp (1963). If a public school official does, it is seen as an establishment of religion by the school.
Other people complain that there is no religion being taught in the curriculum. Well it is allowed. The same Abington v. Shempp (1963) court case never said to keep religion totally out of the curriculum. Studying about religion is permissible (ie., comparative religions, the history of religion, religion as a significant aspect of our culture). The point being, public school is not a place to be indoctrinated or proselytized to any particular religion. If you want that, go to church.
Many people don’t know, but students actually have the right to leave school property while school is in session to go to receive the religious instruction of their choice off campus. Another landmark court case Zorach v. Clausen (1952) established this as constitutional for students. This instruction should be off campus and not taught by any school staff, but there are no other restrictions on the type of religious instruction received. There’s one most people probably don’t know about.
Non-curriculum related groups or clubs are allowed to meet before or after school. This would include any religious groups that would want to participate. The only restrictions according to the Equal Access Act (1984) are the school cannot discriminate against any group unless is goes against the moral standards of the community or if it goes against the educational mission of the school.
So thinking back to that fiery preacher on the AM radio, I don’t know if that man has ever been in a public school before. I also doubt that students, parents, and even school officials know their full rights and know the precedents established by landmark court cases on the subject of religion in public schools.
