Religion & American Law

Child Forbidden From Writing About God in School

Kayne West once said, "If I talk about God my record won't get played."  More recently, an Elementary School student has been told, "If you talk about God your work won't get a grade."

Erin Shead is a 10 year old student at Lucy Elementary who had been assigned to write about someone she idolized.  As a Christian, Erin decided to write about God and Jesus, whom she described as "His Earthly Son."  However, when she turned the assignment in to her teacher, she was told that she would have to choose a new topic and redo the assignment.  Is this fair?  Erin had not only been prohibited to profess her religious views but also had to do the assignment twice.  She did listen to her teacher and redo the assignment, choosing the perhaps equally controversial Michael Jackson as someone else who she idolized.

The school has a policy that forbids promotion of religious ideals within the classroom, but also has no policy preventing students from expressing beliefs on their own accord or in class assignments.  The distinction between the two is critical.  Clearly a teacher cannot teach religion as fact, but teachers are permitted to acknowledge that many people are religious.  Additionally, we must consult the First Amendment, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  The question at hand is whether the content in this child's assignment is in violation of the school rule or the first amendment.

Erica Shead, Erin's mother, got involved to try to get an explanation of the school's reasoning on the matter.  Shead expressed how her daughters work had been "cute" and "innocent,"clearly not intending to be opportunistic about promoting her religious beliefs.  She believed her daughter was simply being honest about who she idolized.  They both feel that this has been a case of favoring non-religion over religion.

The school felt differently.  Though their response was brief, school spokesman Christian Ross reminded the Shead's of the school policy that, "teachers are prohibited from promoting religious beliefs in the classroom.  He also stated that the school has no policy prohibiting students from expressing their religious beliefs in class assignments.  Upon further questioning from Shead, the principal stated that the district had spoken to the Shead family about the issue and would not be making any further comments on the matter.

The fundamental issue at hand is the role of religion in the classroom.  Was the teacher justified in preventing Erin from choosing to write about God or were Erin's free exercise rights violated?  The school made their decision based on the establishment clause, fearing that allowing Erin to write about religion in a school setting was not compliant with the school's desire to follow the First Amendment.

I side with the Shead's on this issue.  I believe Erin's free exercise rights have been compromised by the school's willingness to remove all religion from it's classrooms.  The school has admitted that they have no rule preventing students from expressing religious beliefs in their assignments, such as the one Erin was instructed to complete.  Since the teacher would not have been violating the school rule prohibiting the promotion of religious principles, I do not feel that the teacher was compelled to act.

I also do not believe allowing Erin to express her religious beliefs in this assignment is a violation of the establishment clause.  The nature of the assignment is personal, choosing someone who is an idol to the specific individual.  The teacher was not in violation of the establishment clause in giving the assignment, but neither was Erin in choosing God as her idol to share with her class.  If the assignment was to write about one's personal religion, perhaps I would feel differently, but this assignment was very broad.  I do not believe that the establishment rights of other classmates would be compromised by listening to Erin share her assignment with the class.  Erin has a right to express her belief in a personal, explanatory way.  If she began to preach to the class and attempt to convert classmates, then she would be violating the establishment clause.  However, as long as it is personal and simply informative, I believe Erin should have been allowed to write about God.  Do you agree?

Tags: