Protect religious rights in schools

Christ on campus? It’s OK — really. Our public schools have largely ignored teaching one basic First Amendment right by failing to instruct students of their religious rights in the hallways and classrooms.

The American Center for Law and Justice and Gateways to Better Education offer pro-bono legal assistance and guidelines to promote religious freedom for America’s public schoolchildren, their parents and teachers. Religious speech is not some type of subordinate speech in the First Amendment or a court context. As long as their religious speech does not disrupt the educational mission of the school, students can exercise their religious liberties with great latitude.

Parents can and should get involved inside the classroom and have a right to know what their children are being taught. Christian children in public schools today are facing more condescension, mockery and stigma than their parents realize. It is important for parents to teach kids their religious, constitutionally protected rights at home and be aware of when those rights are being suppressed.

Teachers operate under more restrictions but should be aware of the legal guidelines through which they can live out their faith and express themselves in class. The National Department of Education has issued guidelines dating to 1995 that clarify students’ religious liberties and are sent to superintendents nationwide. They in turn are responsible for seeing that every principal and every teacher is informed. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening. What we are seeing is Christian students being silenced in favor of secular classmates, or other religious points of view given a level of protection and sanction that Christian students are not afforded.

The fact that some person is offended by religious speech does not render that speech unprotected. The First Amendment was created to protect unpopular speech because popular speech doesn’t need protection.

Arlene Sawicki

South Barrington