Religious expression in public schools

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051507.01A.praying_kids.346b298.html
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Zach Van Veldhuizen believes Jesus should be honored in public schools. The MacArthur High School senior doesn't understand why prayers or other religious expressions at school-sponsored events would be a problem.

But Katina Rajunov, a Clark High School senior, believes that religious messages given at school-sponsored events might make students of differing faiths feel excluded.

Enter the Texas Legislature, which has joined the fray most commonly the province of school district officials, who often face a conundrum in the religious freedoms of students.

The Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act, passed May 1 by the Texas House and expected to pass the Senate possibly this week before being signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry, would require Texas public school districts to adopt policies specifically allowing spontaneous religious expression by students.

The provision would create a "limited open forum" — an opportunity for students to speak about religious issues on the same basis as they're allowed to speak about other topics.

It states that if a student speaker at a sports event, a school assembly or a graduation ceremony elects to spontaneously express a religious viewpoint while speaking on an otherwise permissible topic, school officials must treat the religious content the same as it would secular content

It also would require policies that allow religious expression in artwork, homework or other assignments and allow religious clubs or prayer groups to meet in school facilities on the same basis as other students groups use them.

Van Veldhuizen, a Fellowship of Christian Athletes leader at his school, said he believes prayer has been largely pushed out of public schools, so those who want to pray openly need legal protection.

"If I screamed out my belief, that would be wrong," he said, "but if I do it in a polite, gentle way and say how God has changed my life, I don't see why anybody would find that offensive."

She has no objection to allowing religious groups to use school facilities the same way nonreligious groups do, but she doesn't like the idea of anyone at an official school event having to listen to prayers and beliefs of any one particular religious tradition.

"If it represents one religion, it excludes all the others, even if the school or the district isn't actively endorsing it," she said.

Raj Singh, a senior at O'Connor High School who is a Sikh, said he doesn't believe speakers at large school-sponsored events should use such occasions for religious purposes.

"I don't mind people expressing their beliefs — but they shouldn't do it as public speakers. It's not fair to others."

Hunter Ellis, a Clark High School senior who belongs to a student Bible study group, said he doesn't see any problem with the bill.

"Students should be allowed to give their religious viewpoints or maybe read a few Bible verses — in a toned-down way, not to try to convert others," he said.

Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land, who introduced the bill in the House, said students who have strong religious faith have the right to express it.

"It would confer no new rights and would remove no existing rights," Howard said of the bill.

But two specialists in First Amendment law disagreed over the public-speaking provision.

University of Michigan law Professor Doug Laycock, who has represented the American Civil Liberties Union in litigation on First Amendment issues, said the bill's language reflects existing law.

For example, students already can conduct so-called "See You at the Pole" events to pray before or after school or have Bible study or prayer meetings in school facilities on the same basis as other groups. But he said creating a "limited public forum" at mass school events and letting randomly selected student leaders give religious messages breaks new ground that the Supreme Court hasn't decided.

Current law requires official school events to be secular because the school controls the program. Students attending are a "captive audience," and a student's speech to a mass audience isn't private, he said.

"In any district where most student speakers would open events with prayer, the bill essentially forces students of other faiths and of no faith to participate in evangelical prayer services," Laycock said.

Frank Manion, a lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice, which defends Christians' religious and civil liberties, said that while the policy could be abused, that doesn't mean it will be.

"If you had a Christian prayer every time a school had an event, you'd wonder if this wasn't really just a sham," Manion said. "But we don't outlaw freedom of speech just because some people abuse it."

Van Alstyne Independent School District Superintendent Alan Seay, who attended the recent House debate, said he wants the assurance that his district complies with Supreme Court mandates.

"If a Muslim student speaker wanted to say a prayer to Allah or speak about how Allah has influenced his life, Christian parents might object and sue the district," he said. "This bill would free districts from having to be word police and to censor everything a kid said."

But Brian Woods, assistant superintendent for secondary education at Northside Independent School District, said balancing competing rights of student speakers and student audiences is "very much a no-win situation" for districts.

"Limited open forums," he said, usually are student-led groups meeting in school facilities, not mass events.

"For large gatherings, we like to review what a student speaker is going to say before he says it. That's appropriate whatever the message, not because it might be religious.

"If a student chose to convey a message and we couldn't prohibit it, that would take away a lot of control," Woods said.

Islamics will have few restrictions about what they say, because they will say that talk about Islam is their life style and requirement. Christians and Jews will be told to take a hike.

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