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Religious practice in public schools: debate thesis
Separation between religion and schools
Effects of religion in schools
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QUESTION PRESENTED
Whether the rules created by the New York School Board, as established by the DOE Holiday Display Memo, are in violation of the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the first amendment.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
In 1997 the New York City Department of Education Office of Legal Services, working together with the City Office of Corporation Counsel, created a policy concerning holiday displays in public schools. This policy was later adopted and in a memorandum dated November 28, 2001 was given to all City public school superintendents and principals. The purpose of this policy and subsequent memorandum, (hereafter referred to as the "Holiday Display Memo"), was to give instruction to schools on how they could create
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a holiday display in a way that would increase the cultural and ethnical understanding of students, without promoting any culture or their religion above another. The New York City school system has over one million students enrolled in it throughout 1200 public schools and programs, and is the largest school system in the country.
This area, in many, ways represents the heart of the "American Melting Pot," the population of the City and subsequently of the student body, represents virtually every race, nationality, ethnicity, and religious and cultural tradition in the world. The students enrolled in City public schools alone, speak 140 different primary languages ranging from Chinese, Japanese and Korean, to Russian, Urdu, Bengali and Arabic. For this reason, and others City educators have seen it as an important responsibility to educate students about the different cultures and ethnicities surrounding them. The excitement over traditional year-end festivities celebrating traditions such as Christmas, Chanukah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa, presented an opportunity to teach the students about and encourage respect for different cultures in the community. Because some of these traditions have religious origins, special care was taken in determining what representative symbols could appropriately be displayed in the public schools without violating the First Amendment, by seeming to promote religion. This was articulated in the Holdiay Display Memo.
Soon after the Holiday Display Memo was first sent out, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil rights unsuccessfully petitioned the DOE to include the creche in its list of approved symbols for the holiday
displays. Andrea Skoros, mother of Nicholas and Christos Tine Skoros, is a Roman Catholic and is raising her sons according to her faith. During the 2001-2002 school year, Nicholas was in the third-grade and attended New York City's Public School 165. During the following school year he attended Public School 169 while his brother, Christos, attended Public School 184 while in the second-grade. Skoros filed lawsuit on December 29, 2002 and again with an amended complaint February 28, 2003. She claimed that the City's holiday display policy "impermissibly promoted and endorsed the religions of Judaism and Islam, conveyed the impermissible message of disapproval of Christianity, and coerced students to accept the Jewish and Islamic religions in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment." Am. Compl. at 7, P22. She furthermore charged that her rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First amendment had been violated by the coercion or her sons "to accept the Jewish and Islamic religions and to renounce [their] Christian religion." Id. at 8, P25. She also alleged that the actions of the City had infringed on her right "to control the religious upbringing and education of her children" in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Id. at 9, P28. Skoros demanded compensation (1) by a declaratory judgment that the defendants had violated her own and her sons' constitutional rights (2) with a permanent court order prohibiting the City from further implementing the holiday display policy in public schools; and (3) compensation for nominal damages, attorney's fees, and costs. See id. at 9-10. The district court denied each of her claims.
In the majority opinion, Justice White wrote “Educators did not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the content of student speech so long as their actions were” The court also noted that the paper was a sponsored newspaper by the school which was not intended to be seen by the public, but rather for journalism students to write articles based off of the requirements for journalism 2 class, and all subjects must be appropriate for the school and all its
Board of Regents (1967). The teacher’s interest as a citizen in making public comment must be balanced against the State’s interest in promoting the efficiency of its employees’ public services. The court found the statements of the appellant were substantially correct, regarded matters of public concern, and presented no questions of faculty discipline or harmony. The statements offered no proper basis for the school board’s action in dismissing the appellant (Oyez, n.d.).
Over five years have passed since high school senior Joseph Frederick was suspended for 10 days by school principal Deborah Morse after refusing her request to take down a 14-foot banner he was displaying at a school-sanctioned event which read “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS.” Born as a seemingly trivial civil lawsuit in which Frederick sued the school for violating his First Amendment rights to free speech, the case made its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the long-awaited ruling of Morse v. Frederick has finally been released. In a 5-4 split decision, the court ruled in favor of Morse and upheld the school board’s original ruling that Morse was acting within her rights and did not violate Frederick’s First Amendment rights by taking away his banner and suspending him for 10 days. The controversial decision has led followers of the case to question the future of student speech rights.
Through using case laws, the First Amendment, and previous cases, Justice Abe Fortas explains the reasoning behind why the principal was not permissible. In the first two paragraphs, Fortas provides a brief summary stating how the policy banning armbands go against the First Amendment. In the following paragraph, Fortas says, “Only a few of the 18,00 students in the school system wore the black armbands.” When introducing his first argument, he supports this fact explaining how “the work of the schools or any class was [not] disrupted.” As for the fourth paragraph, Justice Fortas provides a counter argument with what the District Court said. The District Court concluded the school authorities were reasonable since it was based upon their fear o...
Did the state’s compulsory education n laws, which requires child’s attendance until age 16, infringe upon the parents’ First Amendment rights by criminalizing the parents who refused to send their children to school for religious reasons?
2. Was the Chicago ordinance, as defined in this case, unconstitutional in its contents because it failed to provide support for the First Amendment?
Bennett, A., & Brower, A. (2001). ’THAT’S NOT WHAT FERPA SAYS!’: THE TENTH CIRCUIT COURT GIVES DANGEROUS BREADTH TO FERPA IN ITS CONFUSING AND CONTRADICTORY FALVO V. OWASSO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT DECISION. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, 2, 327.
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
Free speech at public universities and colleges is the most clear and the most contradictory of constitutional pr...
Indeed, in all their schools from elementary to secondary schools, they already adopted curricula that will foster cultural diversity. Through this program, students from different levels had the chance to be exposed to different traditions and customs of various ethnic and racial groups. Even the government sectors in the United States are advocating tolerance for diversity, like how they commemorate Asian American, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander Heritage weeks (Margai, 2010). Even in their postage, they developed stamps highlighting some prominent Americans along with their diverse backgrounds. Despite all these efforts, sometimes the issue concerning multiculturalism causes significant political and societal conflicts. Right now, United States is widely known as the greatest melting pot where people from different countries and with different cultures could be united as one. However, people have divided views with regards to the issue whether the immigrants should adopt America’s culture, or they should be given the freedom to keep their own culture. The majority of the Americans believed that one must learn first how to speak English before permitting to have an American citizenship. In support of the notion of melting pot, many Americans still insist that their Creed should endure, and their nation is destined to be a prime model to
Issues of censorship in public schools are contests between the exercise of discretion and the exercise of a Constitutional right. The law must reconcile conflicting claims of liberty and authority, as expressed by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940 in “Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries” by Herbert N. Foerstel (23).
The world is made up of many different types of people, each one having his or her cultural background. Over the years, the United States has become increasingly populated with cultural diversity. This influx has prompted school administrators to recognize the need to incorporate multicultural programs into their school environment including classroom settings, school wide activities, and curriculum as it becomes more evident that the benefits of teaching cultural diversity within the school setting will positively influence our communities, and ultimately the entire nation’s future. The purpose of this paper is to share the pros and cons of multicultural education in the classroom. Additionally, I will express my views compared to those in the reading requirements for this assignment, as well as, new knowledge obtained through the research. Finally, I will share situations where I was challenged introducing a multicultural issue during a class.
Diversity in classrooms can open student’s minds to all the world has to offer. At times diversity and understanding of culture, deviant experiences and perspectives can be difficult to fulfill, but with appropriate strategies and resources, it can lead students to gain a high level of respect for those unlike them, preferably from a judgmental and prejudiced view. Diversity has a broad range of spectrums. Students from all across the continent; students from political refugees, indigenous Americans, and immigrants bring their cultural and linguistic skills to American classrooms. Students not only bring their cultural and linguistic skills, but they bring their ethnicity, talents, and skills.
Christmas is a holiday celebrated by many nations and religions around the world. The spirit of Christmas causes people to come together. It is one of the most favorite times of the year involving gift giving and merry making. To celebrate Christmas people decorate their homes, churches, and other buildings in which fellowship may take place. They may do this with ribbon, holly, mistletoe, and decking them with silver and gold. But where did all these traditions originate? Now, many believe that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus's birth. The truth is that all of these customs from Christmas pre-date our Lord's birth entirely! Christmas today is just a collection of traditions put together to make the holiday we celebrate every year on December
There are many factors that play a role in the learning process for every human being. Race, religion, language, socioeconomics, gender, family structure, and disabilities can all affect the ways in which we learn. Educators must take special measures in the delivery of classroom instruction to celebrate the learning and cultural differences of each of their students. As communities and schools continue to grow in diversity, teachers are searching for effective educational programs to accommodate the various learning styles of each student while promoting acceptance of cultural differences throughout the classroom. It no longer suffices to plan educational experiences only for middle-or upper class white learners and then expect students of other social classes and cultures to change perspectives on motivation and competition, learning styles, and attitudes and values that their homes and families have instilled in them (Manning & Baruth, 2009).