God Help Us: The Status of Religious Rights in the Public School System

by Diane Rufino, April 13, 2010




Young adults often wonder what their rights are in the public school system with respect to religion. On the one hand there is the First Amendment right to religion itself (free exercise and the freedom from being forced to belong to a religion established by Congress), and then are a plurality of Supreme Court decisions which have interpreted the First Amendment, there are the views of religious groups and atheist groups, and then finally there are anti-religion “watch” groups which are ever vigilante to make sure that religion (in any form) is not brought up in schools or in any other public/government-sponsored activity. And then caught in the middle of all this are the children themselves who have Constitutional first amendment rights but don’t know what they are and what they are entitled to. They rely on the school to look after their rights and they are often advised, or pressured, by parents who have strong religious views. But as our schools become diversified and as our society places a greater emphasis on diversity and a progressive new social order, there appears to be a concerted effort to maintain neutrality in classrooms on a number of areas, most notably religion. Schools cannot be seen as promoting one religion over another or showing preference to one religion over another. Students cannot be made to feel that their particular religion is inferior or is not respected. Neutrality seems to be the key.


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