Vigorously Defending the Religious Liberty of Students All Across America

Every week, numerous families, from all across America, contact us at the ACLJ because their children who are public school students have been told they cannot bring their Bibles or Rosaries to school. Why not? Because they may offend other students.

For the same unconstitutional reasons, the political correctness police tell these children that they either cannot start student Bible clubs, or that Bible clubs can’t post fliers or mention God, while other student clubs are unrestricted and even promoted by schools. They are told that witnessing to fellow students is “inappropriate” and “mean.” And that “God” can’t be mentioned in their completed homework assignments.  These are just some of the examples of constitutional violations we were contacted about in the last couple of weeks alone.

It’s these situations that make events from the past week even more egregious. In the last week, over 100,000 people have signed our petition to voice their concern about the indoctrination of American school children into Islam. Schools are not only violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by promoting Islam over other religions, they are stifling students’ constitutionally protected rights.

This is ridiculous. Student speech is not government speech. A school allowing students to exercise their freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly does not violate the Establishment Clause. In contrast, a school unreasonably restricting those freedoms into non-existence does violate the Constitution. 

Let’s be clear—the Supreme Court has held that school children do not lose their First Amendment protected freedoms of religion, expression, and assembly when they are at school. Schools should maintain order and discipline; however, students have the freedom to read their Bibles, wear their Rosaries, pray, and share their faith before and after school, and during non-instructional time. Moreover, students can start student Bible clubs and advertise club activities, as well as share their religious viewpoints in homework assignments.

In 1960, the Supreme Court stated that “[t]he vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools.” This remains true today, and the ACLJ is committed to working with families and school officials to protect the God-given religious liberty students in public schools.

It is discouraging that today’s educators and school officials are so unversed in a basic understanding of the Constitution that, out of fear and in the name of tolerance, they are violating students’ rights. Here at the ACLJ, we are working with the parents and students who have contacted us to ensure that they, as well as school officials, are informed of students’ constitutionally protected rights and the manner in which they can exercise those rights.

In addition, we sent an important legal letter to the school district that has been accused of indoctrinating students into Islam to put a halt to this egregious constitutional violation.
We will continue aggressively fighting to defend the religious liberties of your kids and your grandkids each and every day.