Religion & American Law

Facebook, Religion, and Public Education

The boundary separating a teacher’s right to express his or her religious beliefs while not offending students in the classroom is very fragile. Furthermore, a teacher’s actions outside of the classroom can have serious implications with regards to appropriateness of expressing beliefs. Jerry Buell, a teacher employed by Florida public schools, has been recently confronted by this issue, as postings on his Facebook page have gained national attention (click here for full article). Specifically, his posts consisted of anti-gay remarks, as he stated that New York’s legalization of gay marriage made him want to “throw up.” He also compared gay unions to a “cesspool.” Buell pleads his rights to free speech, while other organizations and bloggers, including atheist Hemant Mehta, defend Buell in favor of his First Amendment right. However, this incident led to an investigation regarding Buell’s conduct in the classroom. Buell’s syllabus states (as a warning to students), “I teach God’s truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, ‘cause I ain’t changing!” There are other examples of Buell’s overt displays of his religious and political beliefs, and many of his former students now claim that Buell was known to have made numerous anti-gay comments during class as well as hanging Bible verses with a picture of Jesus Christ above the classroom clock. Buell has deleted his Facebook page and gay right activists seek to determine whether or not Buell has violated the school district official guidelines as well as students’ rights.

What began as a controversial comment made outside of school walls has now escalated to an investigation of Jerry Buell’s conduct within the classroom. Buell’s comments on Facebook, although offending to many, were legal and a demonstration of his beliefs which clearly originate from religious ideals. However, a correlation between these comments and many of Buell’s distinct expressions of beliefs and values in the classroom is evident, which opens the door to the well-known controversial topic regarding a teacher’s ability to express religious beliefs in a classroom setting. Although this issue appears to be a standard topic regarding a teacher’s rights in and out of the classroom, it is complex since it has been suggested that Buell potentially offended many individuals in the process of overtly expressing his beliefs, in and out of the classroom.

This controversy encompasses many issues pertaining to a teacher’s classroom conduct and rights to the First Amendment. While I agree that Buell’s comments on Facebook were rather extreme and offensive, he has the right to express his opinion, especially outside of the classroom. However, as a teacher, I believe there are a certain set of standards one must abide by in or out of the classroom. For example, if a teacher runs into a student outside of the classroom, he or she should behave appropriately and in a professional manner so as to not suggest or present an inappropriate message towards the student. Buell deliberately posted a message on his Facebook knowing anyone, including his students, had access to his page. In my opinion, Buell needed to make a better effort in expressing his opinion in a professional manner. While investigators evaluate Buell’s classroom conduct, there also exists an issue regarding social networking and education. I believe it is necessary for school districts to establish a firm set of guidelines pertaining to teachers’ use of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. This is necessary since students have access to viewing teacher’s pages. Again, however, any strict guidelines regarding social networking has the potential to violate the First Amendment, as any American citizen has the right to free speech. Additionally, while I agree that Buell should teach his curriculum without Christian bias and be respectful of religions and opinions held by others in his classroom, people must remember that his religion, Christianity, mandates that followers of Jesus Christ must witness and preach Christianity to others. For example, Mark 16:15 states “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Preventing him from preaching these messages to others would therefore be unconstitutional as this prohibits him from exercising his religious beliefs. This situation is a constant debate and applies to all Christian teachers in this nation. Unfortunately, no one can win, since allowing benefits for one religion would offend another, which is why neutrality in the classroom is necessary and optimal in order to eliminate conflicting religious interests.

About : Raja CRN

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