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Students’ Complete Guide to Religious Rights in Public School
Students’ Religious Rights in Public School
Almost fifty years ago, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District , the U.S. Supreme Court declared that neither teachers nor students “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The following is a summary of the legal situation today regarding religious rights beyond the schoolhouse gate. [2] Although there are some limits that apply to government speech (the speech of the school district and its employees), the U.S. Constitution strongly protects a student’s private religious expression. [3] The First Amendment prohibits a school district and its employees from being hostile toward students’ religious beliefs and expression. [4] The proper role of a school district is to remain neutral and accommodate students’ religious beliefs. [5] As one court observed, the Constitution “does not permit [a public school] to confine religious speech to whispers or banish it to broom closets. If it did, the exercise of one’s religion would not be free at all." [6] Student Religious Expression Public schools must treat religious expression such as prayer, reading the Bible, and religious discussion the same way they treat similar nonreligious expression.[7] Unlike the government, students may promote specific religious beliefs or practices. [8]
Students’ Religious Rights in Public School
Prayer
The First Amendment grants students the right to pray during non-instructional time, such as lunch, recess, or other designated free time, to the same extent that the school allows students to engage in nonreligious activities. In other words, the school must treat religious expression, such as prayer, in the same way that it treats nonreligious expression. The U.S. Supreme Court stated that “nothing in the Constitution as interpreted by this Court prohibits any public-school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during, or after the school day. [9]
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