Presentation Transcript

1. Church-State Separation in Schools

   “Educators Must Know Which Activities Are Prohibited And Which Are Protected By Law.” By Gretchen Daehn Zenobia McIvor-Smalley
2. What the problem? Schools often dispute when students are allowed to express their religion in schools, when it is counted as public or private, and when it’s in violation of the Establishment Clause. Many things in dispute include prayers during sports events, wearing religious symbols to school, and even two words in the Pledge of Allegiance. Officials are concerned that endorsing other religions to a student is dangerous, therefore they restrict what can be shown by means of religion in school. However, others are concerned that this infringes on the right of free speech at school. The First Amendment of the U.S Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
3. How this problem can be fixed Many schools say that prayer is not allowed at school. However, it is on the grounds that it is not sponsored by any form of government, also including the school and state. This problem can be fixed by allowing students to have religious clubs and practices of their beliefs after school. After “instructional time,” religious practices on school grounds are allowed, so long as they are not being lead by an adult. (However, they must be supervised.) The best solution to this problem is allowing students to practice after school, where they can express their beliefs to others while still being protected by the Free Exercise Clause.
4. Letter Dear School Board, As part of an eighth grade social studies assignment, we are looking into an issue in the United States, identifying the level of government that will help to fix the problem, and writing a letter to the leader of this level of government. Our chosen topic was Church-State separation and censoring religion in schools.
5. Letter (Continued) Throughout the United States, Church-State Separation in schools is becoming borderline infringement, by not allowing students to express their religious views in school for fear of affecting other students. Some states, including Texas, have banned certain things such as prayers during school events such as football games. Several people and students are disputing whether or not this is on the grounds of Church-State Separation or if it is infringement of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. As students of Seaford Middle School, we are worried that this could possibly happen to our school as well, and we intend to do something about it before we lose our rights as students to express our beliefs.
6. Letter (Continued) In order to help this problem, we believe that there should be certain times when religion is allowed in school. For instance, we think that offering a religion club after school to be run by a student would help for other students to practice their beliefs without causing conflicts within the school. We also think that if the students are in control of the club, then it is within the boundaries of the Free Exercise Clause. Although it may be banned in schools now, we think that educating students about other religions in social studies and other classes can remedy the situation by allowing students to learn to be more accepting of other cultures. In short, discussions about religions from around the world (not just Christianity) should be allowed.
7. Letter (Continued) We hope that you can consider allowing for more religious freedom for the students in our school. By making the curriculum and school rules more flexible towards religious ideas, there will be fewer disputes over religion both inside and outside of school and in the future.
8. Contacts for situation: Rep. Robert Venables (302) 744-4298 Mayor Danny Short Danieloshort@state.de.cu 411 Legislature Ave. Delaware school board 302-629-4587 (ext. 274)