Moreno vs. Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees
Article Reference
Moreno vs. Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees. (2007, May16).
American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved April 12, 2008 from
http://www.aclu.org/religion/schools/296831lgl20070516.html
Summary of Key Points
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (2007), the Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees authorized the teaching of the Bible course in public high schools, which promoted a particular religious viewpoint to public school students in a manner prohibited by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Ector County Independent School District adopted the Bible course with the primary purpose of generally advancing religion and interpreting the Bible within the public high schools (ACLU, 2007).
Mrs. Moreno and the other plaintiffs in this case believes religious education should be the responsibility of parents and religious communities, and not the public schools to which she sends her children (ACLU, 2007). Additionally, Mrs. Moreno and the other plaintiffs’ feels the use of their tax dollars to promote and endorse religion in the public school system is unconstitutional (ACLU, 2007).
The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools was adopted by the Ector County Independent School District to implement their curriculum within the high schools. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (2007), the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools presents its own particular viewpoints and conclusions regarding important issues of biblical interpretation and authorship as though they were the only possible correct viewpoints.
Moreover, the Ector County Independent School District denied public access to parents and the media to view course materials of the The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (ACLU, 2007).
As a result, American Civil Liberties Union (2007) reported that The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools course materials fails the legal requirements of religious neutrality and objectivity in at least four fundamental ways and they are as follows:
. The Course presents the Bible from the perspective of Christianity in general and
a particular interpretation of Protestant Christianity specifically.
. The Course teaches the Bible as literal, historical truth.
. The Course uses the Bible to inculcate religious life lessons.
“'Forget books,”'said Rosewater, throwing that particular book under his bed. 'The hell with 'em.' 'That sounded like an interesting one,' said Valencia.”
Board of Education v. Pico is a Supreme Court case that was argued from March 2, 1892 to June 25, 1982 (Island Trees…). This case presents the issue of banning “vulgar and immoral” books from school libraries (Board of Education, Island).
Many Supreme Court cases in the United States have reassured its citizens’ rights. One of those cases was that of the 1965 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case. This case was about five students who were suspended from school for wearing black armbands. Should the students have been suspended? The Tinker v. Des Moines case was a very controversial Supreme Court case in which the right to freedom of speech and expression for students in public schools was violated.
Vernonia School District v. Acton was a US Supreme court decision that aims to uphold the constitutionality affecting random drug testing implemented by local public schools in Vernonia, Oregon States. This provision mandates student athletes to undergo drug testing before they are going to be allowed to participate in sporting activities. This particular measure established by the constitution stated that it propagates any illegal use of any prohibited substances for students in order to preserve the integrity of the society in particular with handling against drug use. An official investigation led to the discovery that high school athletes in the Vernonia School District participated in illicit drug use. School officials were concerned that drug use increases the risk of sports-related injury. Consequently, the Vernonia School District of Oregon adopted the Student Athlete Drug Policy which authorizes random urinalysis drug testing of its student athletes Substance abuse materials may include marijuana, which is cannabis that is commonly used by teens.
On June 26, 1995, the Supreme Court decided on the case Vernonia School District v. Acton as to whether or not random drug testing of high school athletes violated the reasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment. During the 1980's and 1990's there was a large increase in drug use. The courts decision was a strong interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and the right decision upon drug testing high school athletes.
In cases having to do with constitutionality, the issue of the separation of church and state arises with marked frequency. This battle, which has raged since the nation?s founding, touches the very heart of the United States public, and pits two of the country's most important influences of public opinion against one another. Although some material containing religious content has found its way into many of the nation's public schools, its inclusion stems from its contextual and historical importance, which is heavily supported by material evidence and documentation. It often results from a teacher?s own decision, rather than from a decision handed down from above by a higher power. The proposal of the Dover Area School District to include instruction of intelligent design in biology classes violates the United States Constitution by promoting an excessive religious presence in public schools.
In 1949, a state-wide law was passed in Pennsylvania that required public school students to read scriptures from the Bible and recite the Lord’s Prayer everyday in class. This law stayed intact until Edward Schempp challenged it nine years later. Pennsylvania wasn’t the first or the only state to enforce law making it mandatory for students to read from the Bible during school. Twenty-five additional states had laws allowing “optional” reading for the Bible. But in eleven of the twenty-five states, courts had decided those laws were unconstitutional.
Name & citation of case: Urban v. Jefferson County School District R-1, 870 F. Supp. 1558 (D. CO 1994)
The Supreme Court has adopted a standard of neutrality to satisfy the Establishment Clause stating: neither federal or state government can enact laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another, and neither can force nor influence a person to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 15 (1947). The means that the Martin County Board cannot actively endorse any one particular religion over another and also cannot restrict any one particular religion. See Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 794, 795 (1983). It must remain religiously neutral. Id. at 795. The Martin County Board’s meeting practice of offering a prayer before its board meetings violates the Establishment Clause because they provided strong sectarian references in their invocations, endorsed Christianity, and coerced those in attendance to participate in the prayers.
According to Barton, this Act required public school education to be found on God’s Word in all communities so that children would receive an education based on God’s Word. This Act would not only be an important foundation for American education but as bases on foreign nation’s education. This was also an important Act because children received a Biblically based education they were able to recognize when a law went against God’s Word.
Separation of church and state is an issue in the forefront of people’s minds as some fight for their religious freedoms while others fight for their right to not be subjected to the religious beliefs of anybody else. Because public schools are government agencies they must operate under the same guidelines as any other government entity when it comes to religious expression and support, meaning they cannot endorse any specific religion nor can they encourage or require any religious practice. This issue becomes complicated when students exercise their right to free speech by expressing their religious beliefs in a school setting. An examination of First Amendment legal issues that arise when a student submits an essay and drawing of a religious
The Respondent, Edward Schempp, a unitarian, filed a law suit against the Abington School District for a state law that required students to read at least 10 bible verses and recite the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of school as part of their public education.
The first amendment states every United States citizen has the right to press, petition, assembly freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Also, the amendment states the government is not allowed to make any law that breaks the rights of a citizen. In the case, Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969), the argument was if the students’ first amendment was violated, but the public schools are not an appropriate place to express freedom of speech.
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
This plainly states that public school teachers, principals, and boards are required to be religiously neutral. They may not promote a particular religion as being superior to any other, and may not promote religion in general as superior to a secular approach to life. They also may not promote secularism in general as superior to a religious approach to life, be antagonistic to religion in general or a particular religious belief, be antagonistic to secularism, and they must neither advance nor inhibit religion (Religion in Public).