So much for the First Amendment. Talk about paranoia by the school.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 23, 2007
A Jesus costume prompts a lawsuitA lawyer says Abington school officials wouldn't let a boy wear the outfit. Not so, the district says.
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
A legal dispute over an Abington Township boy's plan to wear a Jesus costume at a school Halloween parade has sparked a federal lawsuit and a heated debate about the place of religious expression in public schools.
Instead of being allowed to wear a white robe with a paper-and-twig crown of thorns, the 10-year-old boy was told by the principal of his elementary school that he could wear only the robe, and should say he was a Roman emperor, says the suit, filed Monday.
The boy contends that he wanted to make a statement about his Christian beliefs and his opposition to the pagan aspects of Halloween. While he was told to change his costume, other children were allowed to dress as devils and goblins, the suit said.
The lawsuit triggered debate online on Philly.com as well as hundreds of blogs and some radio talk shows on the place of religion in public schools.
"They explicitly discriminated against Christianity," said Matt Bowman, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the child, identified by the initials E.D.T., and his mother, Donna Brewer. "They attacked the right to free religious exercise. And they gave unbridled discretion to school officials to suppress free speech," Bowman said. "Each of these has a long pedigree of Supreme Court cases that prohibit what the school officials did."
Schools have long had the right to ban "hateful or violent" costumes but must tread lightly when it comes to religious expression, said Charles Haynes, director of education programs at the First Amendment Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about the First Amendment.
Abington district solicitor Ken Roos says officials did nothing wrong. He said the boy told his teacher and the principal that he was representing Jesus with his robe and crown costume.
When Patricia Whitmire, the principal at Willow Hill Elementary, raised questions, the boy and his mother agreed that he would not wear the crown and would portray himself as a contemporary of Jesus', the lawyer for the 7,445-student district said.
"The solution was what the folks at Willow Hill thought was OK with the mom," Roos said. The mother did not ask for the matter to go to the superintendent, he said.
Roos said that the district, which serves Abington Township and Rockledge Borough in Montgomery County, has a comprehensive policy on religion's place in the schools. "There is nothing in the board policy that would have prevented him, in a Jesus costume, from participating in the parade," he said.
Bowman, who said that Brewer would not comment directly on the suit, said she never agreed to the proposed solution. In any case, he said, even to suggest it reflects "hostility to Christianity... . There is no other reason to suggest that the child remove the crown except to say that Jesus is banned from our school."
The lawsuit also said that when Brewer later asked about the district's stance on Halloween costume restrictions, she was told only that it had a general policy against advocating religion and was never given specifics.
Roos said Brewer was told how to get the district's religion policy but did not follow up.
Neither she or the Alliance Defense Fund contacted the district after that, Roos said, except to file the lawsuit.
Public schools have the authority to prohibit students from wearing costumes that are "hateful or violent," said Haynes, who has long been involved in discussions with educators and religious groups about the role of religion in public schools.
But, he said, "a school allowing a variety of costumes cannot discriminate because they don't like a religious one. They can't censor a religious viewpoint."
Haynes added: "A lot of school districts have said there is no place at all for religion in the schools. That's wrong... . While school officials should not promote or denigrate religion, they can teach about it. And students have the right to express their religious beliefs. That can't be denied them."
The Alliance Defense Fund, which according to its Web site defends "religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and traditional family values," has taken legal action against a Philadelphia-area school district before. Last spring, the group sued the Downingtown Area School District, saying students were not allowed to express their Christian beliefs and religious conviction that homosexuality is sinful. That suit was settled late last summer after the district, without admitting any wrongdoing, changed its policies, making it clear that students were allowed to express their beliefs.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/16762665.htm
