Christmas Victory

Anna requested our assistance on behalf of her son, Josiah, a second-grade student attending an elementary school located within the Branchburg Township School District in New Jersey.  Earlier this month, Josiahs class was given a creative art assignment to decorate a cut-out mitten.  The children were not given any limiting instruction except to create their own artistic design that represented the seasonal holidays.  All the childrens mittens (except Josiahs mitten) were displayed in the schools gymnasium on a bulletin board titled, Celebrating the Warmth of the Season. 

Josiahs class decorated their mittens with various red and green designs, patterns, pictures of Santa Claus, and some students included their names as part of their design.  The bulletin board is composed of numerous holiday expressions of each students own artistic choice.  Josiahs mitten contained his holiday expression, which happens to contain his familys religious beliefs about Christmas:  Jesus Saves Lives.  The teacher refused to display Josiahs mitten precisely because of the religious content.  Thus, Josiah brought his mitten home to his mother, explaining that his teacher would not display the mitten.  Anna then spoke with the schools principal regarding the matter.  The principal refused to display the mitten, stating that she had contacted the schools lawyers, and the lawyers determined that the school could not display Josiahs mitten; she further stated that the school had law that supported their position also.  Interestingly, in past discussions between Anna and the principal regarding the schools holiday curriculum, the principal had stated her position about Biblical content:  Although the Bible cannot be part of holiday curriculum, the students may ask questions and make comments during instructional time with regard to the religious nature of the holidays. 

We sent a demand letter to the school districts attorney on behalf of Anna and Josiah.  Two days later, we received a written response explaining that, although the school disagreed with our position on the law, they would display Josiahs mitten in order to avoid the expenditure of time and resources that would be consumed in litigating over the matter.  The school will restore the mitten to the display in question, with full reservation of rights with respect to any similar action in the future.