Student prayer and religious discussion: The Establishment
Clause of the First Amendment does not prohibit purely
private religious speech by students. Students therefore
have the same right to engage in individual or group
prayer and religious discussion during the school day as
they do to engage in other comparable activity. For
example, students may read their Bibles or other
scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray before tests
to the same extent they may engage in comparable
nondisruptive activities. Local school authorities possess
substantial discretion to impose rules of order and other
pedagogical restrictions on student activities, but they
may not structure or administer such rules to discriminate
against religious activity or speech.
Generally, students may pray in a nondisruptive manner
when not engaged in school activities or instruction, and
subject to the rules that normally pertain in the
applicable setting. Specifically, students in informal
settings, such as cafeterias and hallways, may pray and
discuss their religious views with each other, subject to
the same rules of order as apply to other student
activities and speech. Students may also speak to, and
attempt to persuade, their peers about religious topics
just as they do with regard to political topics. School
officials, however, should intercede to stop student
speech that constitutes harassment aimed at a student or a
group of students.
Students may also participate in before or after school
events with religious content, such as "see you at the
flag pole" gatherings, on the same terms as they may
participate in other noncurriculum activities on school
premises. School officials may neither discourage nor
encourage participation in such an event.
The right to engage in voluntary prayer or religious
discussion free from discrimination does not include the
right to have a captive audience listen, or to compel
other students to participate. Teachers and school
administrators should ensure that no student is in any way
coerced to participate in religious activity.
Graduation prayer and baccalaureates: Under current
Supreme Court decisions, school officials may not mandate
or organize prayer at graduation, nor organize religious
baccalaureate ceremonies. If a school generally opens its
facilities to private groups, it must make its facilities
available on the same terms to organizers of privately
sponsored religious baccalaureate services. A school may
not extend preferential treatment to baccalaureate
ceremonies and may in some instances be obliged to
disclaim official endorsement of such ceremonies. Official
neutrality regarding religious activity: Teachers and
school administrators, when acting in those capacities,
are representatives of the state and are prohibited by the
establishment clause from soliciting or encouraging
religious activity, and from participating in such
activity with students. Teachers and administrators also
are prohibited from discouraging activity because of its
religious content, and from soliciting or encouraging
antireligious activity.
Teaching about religion: Public
schools may not provide religious instruction, but they
may teach about religion, including the Bible or other
scripture: the history of religion, comparative
religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature,
and the role of religion in the history of the United
States and other countries all are permissible public
school subjects. Similarly, it is permissible to
consider religious influences on art, music, literature,
and social studies. Although public schools may teach
about religious holidays, including their religious
aspects, and may celebrate the secular aspects of
holidays, schools may not observe holidays as religious
events or promote such observance by students.
Student assignments: Students may express their beliefs
about religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other
written and oral assignments free of 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.
Religious literature: Students have a right to distribute
religious literature to their schoolmates on the same
terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature
that is unrelated to school curriculum or activities.
Schools may impose the same reasonable time, place, and
manner or other constitutional restrictions on
distribution of religious literature as they do on
nonschool literature generally, but they may not single
out religious literature for special regulation.
Religious excusals: Subject to applicable State laws,
schools enjoy substantial discretion to excuse individual
students from lessons that are objectionable to the
student or the students' parents on religious or other
conscientious grounds. However, students generally do not
have a Federal right to be excused from lessons that may
be inconsistent with their religious beliefs or practices.
School officials may neither encourage nor discourage
students from availing themselves of an excusal option.
Released time: Subject to applicable State laws, schools
have the discretion to dismiss students to off-premises
religious instruction, provided that schools do not
encourage or discourage participation or penalize those
who do not attend. Schools may not allow religious
instruction by outsiders on school premises during the
school day.
Teaching values: Though schools must be neutral with
respect to religion, they may play an active role with
respect to teaching civic values and virtue, and the moral
code that holds us together as a community. The fact that
some of these values are held also by religions does not
make it unlawful to teach them in school.
Student garb: Schools enjoy substantial discretion in
adopting policies relating to student dress and school
uniforms. Students generally have no Federal right to be
exempted from religiously-neutral and generally applicable
school dress rules based on their religious beliefs or
practices; however, schools may not single out religious
attire in general, or attire of a particular religion, for
prohibition or regulation. Students may display religious
messages on items of clothing to the same extent that they
are permitted to display other comparable messages.
Religious messages may not be singled out for suppression,
but rather are subject to the same rules as generally
apply to comparable messages.
|
