RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Student prayer and religious discussion: The Establishment Clause of the First

Amendment does not prohibit purely private religious speech by students. Students

therefore have the same right to engage in individual or group prayer and religious

discussion during the school day as they do to engage in other comparable activity.

For example, students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before

meals, and pray before tests to the same extent they may engage in comparable

nondisruptive activities. Local school authorities possess substantial discretion to

impose rules of order and other pedagogical restrictions on student activities, but they

may not structure or administer such rules to discriminate against religious activity or

speech.

Generally, students may pray in a nondisruptive manner when not engaged in school

activities or instruction, and subject to the rules that normally pertain in the applicable

setting. Specifically, students in informal settings, such as cafeterias and hallways,

may pray and discuss their religious views with each other, subject to the same rules

of order as apply to other student activities and speech. Students may also speak to,

and attempt to persuade, their peers about religious topics just as they do with regard

to political topics. School officials, however, should intercede to stop student speech

that constitutes harassment aimed at a student or a group of students.

Students may also participate in before or after school events with religious content,

such as "see you at the flag pole" gatherings, on the same terms as they may

participate in other noncurriculum activities on school premises. School officials may

neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an event.

The right to engage in voluntary prayer or religious discussion free from discrimination

does not include the right to have a captive audience listen, or to compel other

students to participate. Teachers and school administrators should ensure that no

student is in any way coerced to participate in religious activity.

Graduation prayer and baccalaureates: Under current Supreme Court decisions,

school officials may not mandate or organize prayer at graduation, nor organize

religious baccalaureate ceremonies. If a school generally opens its facilities to private

groups, it must make its facilities available on the same terms to organizers of

privately sponsored religious baccalaureate services. A school may not extend

preferential treatment to baccalaureate ceremonies and may in some instances be

obliged to disclaim official endorsement of such ceremonies.

Official neutrality regarding religious activity: Teachers and school administrators,

when acting in those capacities, are representatives of the state and are prohibited by

the establishment clause from soliciting or encouraging religious activity, and from

participating in such activity with students. Teachers and administrators also are

prohibited from discouraging activity because of its religious content, and from

soliciting or encouraging antireligious activity.

Teaching about religion: Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they

may teach about religion, including the Bible or other scripture: the history of religion,

comparative religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the role of religion

in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school

subjects. Similarly, it is permissible to consider religious influences on art, music,

literature, and social studies. Although public schools may teach about religious

holidays, including their religious aspects, and may celebrate the secular aspects of

holidays, schools may not observe holidays as religious events or promote such

observance by students.

Student assignments: Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of

homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free of discrimination

based on the religious content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work

should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, and

against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the school.

Religious literature: Students have a right to distribute religious literature to their

schoolmates on the same terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature that

is unrelated to school curriculum or activities. Schools may impose the same

reasonable time, place, and manner or other constitutional restrictions on distribution

of religious literature as they do on nonschool literature generally, but they may not

single out religious literature for special regulation.

Religious excusals: Subject to applicable State laws, schools enjoy substantial

discretion to excuse individual students from lessons that are objectionable to the

student or the students' parents on religious or other conscientious grounds. However,

students generally do not have a Federal right to be excused from lessons that may

be inconsistent with their religious beliefs or practices. School officials may neither

encourage nor discourage students from availing themselves of an excusal option.

Released time: Subject to applicable State laws, schools have the discretion to

dismiss students to off-premises religious instruction, provided that schools do not

encourage or discourage participation or penalize those who do not attend. Schools

may not allow religious instruction by outsiders on school premises during the school

day.

Teaching values: Though schools must be neutral with respect to religion, they may

play an active role with respect to teaching civic values and virtue, and the moral code

that holds us together as a community. The fact that some of these values are held

also by religions does not make it unlawful to teach them in school.

Student garb: Schools enjoy substantial discretion in adopting policies relating to

student dress and school uniforms. Students generally have no Federal right to be

exempted from religiously-neutral and generally applicable school dress rules based

on their religious beliefs or practices; however, schools may not single out religious

attire in general, or attire of a particular religion, for prohibition or regulation. Students

may display religious messages on items of clothing to the same extent that they are

permitted to display other comparable messages. Religious messages may not be

singled out for suppression, but rather are subject to the same rules as generally apply

to comparable messages.

THE EQUAL ACCESS ACT

The Equal Access Act is designed to ensure that, consistent with the First

Amendment, student religious activities are accorded the same access to public

school facilities as are student secular activities. Based on decisions of the Federal

courts, as well as its interpretations of the Act, the Department of Justice has advised

that the Act should be interpreted as providing, among other things, that:

General provisions: Student religious groups at public secondary schools have the

same right of access to school facilities as is enjoyed by other comparable student

groups. Under the Equal Access Act, a school receiving Federal funds that allows one

or more student noncurriculum-related clubs to meet on its premises during

noninstructional time may not refuse access to student religious groups.

Prayer services and worship exercises covered: A meeting, as defined and protected

by the Equal Access Act, may include a prayer service, Bible reading, or other

worship exercise.

Equal access to means of publicizing meetings: A school receiving Federal funds

must allow student groups meeting under the Act to use the school media -- including

the public address system, the school newspaper, and the school bulletin board -- to

announce their meetings on the same terms as other noncurriculum-related student

groups are allowed to use the school media. Any policy concerning the use of school

media must be applied to all noncurriculum-related student groups in a

nondiscriminatory matter. Schools, however, may inform students that certain groups

are not school sponsored.

Lunch-time and recess covered: A school creates a limited open forum under the

Equal Access Act, triggering equal access rights for religious groups, when it allows

students to meet during their lunch periods or other noninstructional time during the

school day, as well as when it allows students to meet before and after the school day.

Revised May 1998