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Students’ Complete Guide to Religious Rights in Public School
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education guidelines provide:
the school cannot prohibit students from speaking to each other about religion and faith. This means that students can also share their faith with fellow students.[14] For example, if a school allows students to speak about sports, movies, or friendships during non-instructional time, the school cannot restrict students from also talking about their faith with others.
“Students may pray when not engaged in school activities or instruction, subject to the same rules designed to prevent material disruption of the education program that are applied to other privately initiated expressive activities. Among other things, students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour, or other non instructional time to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities”[10] As long as the prayer is student-initiated and not substantially disruptive to the school environment, schools may not restrict or punish students for praying or expressing their faith, even in front of non-believers. This means that if a school district allows students to converse with each other about any topic during lunch, recess, or free time, it must allow students to pray. If the school has a moment of silence, students are allowed to silently pray, just as they may engage in any other silent activity. Teachers are prohibited from discouraging students from praying during this time.[11] [12]
Student Religious Expression in Class Assignments
Students can express their faith in school assignments such as homework, projects, or artwork. The U.S. Department of Education’s guidelines state: Students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the school. Thus, if a teacher’s assignment involves writing a poem, the work of a student who submits a poem in the form of a prayer (for example, a psalm) should be judged on the basis of academic standards (such as literary quality) and neither penalized nor rewarded on account of its religious content.[15] To further illustrate, if a teacher instructed students to draw pictures about the “winter season,” a student could draw a picture of the birth of Jesus as part of the Christmas tradition in the same way that a student could draw a picture of a snowman. The First Amendment forbids a teacher from giving a student who incorporates religion into his or her assignment a lower grade based on the religious viewpoint expressed. Although schools cannot discriminate against religious expression, they can require that the religious expression is related to the topic assigned, that the assignment reflects the student’s own work, and that the student has followed the specific directions of the assignment.[16] For example, if the class assignment is to write about the U.S. Constitution and a student writes about the Bible instead, the student can be penalized for not following the directions of the assignment. It is important to note that student expression in class assignments may be different from expression in school- sponsored publications (such as school newspapers), theatrical productions, or other school-sponsored activities that the school district promotes and that appear to be the speech of the school district itself.[17]
Reading Religious Texts
Further, during non-instructional time, students can read the Bible or other religious materials to the same extent that the school allows students to read similar nonreligious materials. The First Amendment prohibits schools from treating religious materials differently from nonreligious materials.[13] For example, if schools allow students to bring books from home to read during free time, then the school cannot prevent students from bringing religious material, such as a Bible or scriptures of other faiths, and reading these during free time. In the same way, if a school allows students to bring car magazines to class to read, then students can also bring religious magazines.
Sharing Your Faith
If a school allows students to talk to each other in between classes, at recess, during lunch, or other non-class times,
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