The tale begins, "A candy maker wanted to invent a candy that was a witness to Christ. First of all, he used a hard candy cane because Christ is the Rock of Ages. This hard candy was shaped so that it would resemble a 'J' for Jesus, or turned upside down, a shepherd's staff."
A year ago, school officials allegedly would not allow Jonathan Morgan to give out candy cane pens with an attached bookmark of "The Legend of the Candy Cane" to his classmates.
Although Morgan can bring his gifts to school this year, the incident brought attention to school district policies that at least four Plano families believe restrict the religious freedoms of their children.
During a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Kelly Shackelford, legal counsel of Liberty Legal Institute, announced that his firm had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Sherman on behalf of the four families.
In a statement prepared by its attorneys, Plano school district officials state that the district is committed to protecting students' religious freedoms.
"The Plano ISD has repeatedly indicated to Liberty Legal its belief that each student has a right to religious expression and the Plano ISD is committed to providing students with that right," read a statement prepared by the district's attorneys.
"The Plano ISD is proud of the uniquely diverse population of students enrolled in the District and their diverse religious beliefs," the statement continues. "The Plano ISD will continue to pursue its mandate of 'teamwork for excellence' within its schools."
The lawsuit cites situations at Thomas Elementary, Hughston Elementary, Wells Elementary and Razor Elementary in which school officials have kept students from distributing free tickets to religious events, pencils with the word "Jesus" and the candy cane pens with religious bookmarks.
"Our schools are not zones of religious censorship," Shackelford said. His law firm has filed lawsuits in many cases involving disputes over First Amendment freedoms.
And when Morgan was in third grade last year, his principal and teacher would not allow him to hand out the candy cane pens and bookmark during the class party because of their religious nature, the lawsuit states. While he could not give out the religious messages, his classmates were allowed to exchange other secular gifts. School officials told Morgan he could only distribute his gifts in the library or on the sidewalk, according to the lawsuit.
The Morgan family said last year they planned to file suit after the incident. After news reports told the story, Liberty Legal Institute received calls from other families who told of similar problems at Plano schools, Shackelford said.
"It's part of a pattern and practice at Plano ISD that really has to be put to a stop very soon," said Hiram Sasser, one of the attorneys in the case. "It's sending a very clear message to the students that religion is not to be allowed in the building. That's a terrible message."
School officials stated Wednesday that a decision was made earlier this year that children could distribute any materials, including those that are religious, during class parties because they determined that class parties are non-instructional time.
"As a result, the District decided that students and parents could hand out any materials, written or otherwise, that they desired as long as the distribution did not cause a material and substantial disruption to the school environment," read the district's statement.
However, Liberty Legal disputed the district's response with a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon.
"We have been told Plano ISD released a statement that they were planning all along to do the Christmas Party during non-instructional time and that students would be allowed to pass out anything they want," the statement reads. "This is untrue. They have never told the parents, students or their attorneys this. In fact, in their letter of just one week ago to parents, it explicitly states that the school policy prohibiting distribution of materials at school would apply."
But Liberty Legal attorneys state that the district must still change its policy.
"This would not, however, resolve all the problems," the statement from Liberty Legal concludes. "Are they still going to apply this unconstitutional policy during the rest of the school day each day, just not during the Christmas Party? Will more little girls be told they may not hand out pencils with "Jesus" on them?"
Speaking for his son, Doug Morgan said Wednesday that Jonathan wanted to share his Christian beliefs with his friends, a practice that is encouraged at home and at church.
"My child just with his Christian beliefs, feeling that a religious message is something we're commanded to do as part of our teaching, and then to be precluded from doing it made him feel like for some reason it wasn't OK," Doug Morgan said. "It wasn't something that was appropriate to be shared in public." --- missing word?
But Sasser said a 1969 Supreme Court decision, in Tinker v. Des Moines, allows for all free speech, including religious speech, as long as the speech does not disrupt school activities and does not interfere with the rights of others.
"We want them to do that," Sasser said, saying that the district's legal policy reflects the Supreme Court ruling.
The district's local policy states that classrooms are designated for student instruction and hallways simply connect students with classrooms and lockers.
"Each school campus shall designate an area where materials that have been approved for distribution, as provided below, may be made available or distributed to students or others in accordance with the time, place, and manner restrictions developed and approved by the campus principal," the district's local policy states.
The district policy requires prior review by school officials of all written material outside of the district's control. School officials can prohibit the distribution of materials such as fliers and pencils if they are obscene, provide a danger to health, violate the rights of another person, contain defamatory statements about a person, criticize the school board or school officials, promote in disruptive action or include attacks on groups of people.
Schools have some legal authority to restrict First Amendment rights at school if those rights interfere with school activities, said Lackland Bloom, a law professor at Southern Methodist University who teaches constitutional law. The question is what the district is trying to protect in limiting religious speech.
"Obviously, there's more latitude in a school setting, especially an elementary school setting, but there's some limits," Bloom said.
At the same time, Schackelford knows the law and wins many cases, Bloom said.
Shackelford said that if students can talk about Madonna and the Cowboys, they can talk about their faith.
"Jonathan just wanted to participate like everyone else with the goodie bags," Shackelford said. "He was excited about being able to hand something to them in connection with Christmas that was really personal to him. It's something that he believed and he wanted to share with his fellow students."
And government officials do not have the right to tell students and others what they can say, Shackelford said.
Contact staff writer Brenda Bernet at 972-398-4265 or bernetb@scntx.com.
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