Northwest Herald - Crystal Lake, IL - School Quashes Handing Out Jesus Candy Canes

January 14, 2005
by ROB PHILLIPS

WOODSTOCK A third-grade teacher at Dean Elementary School refused to allow a student to pass out candy canes because they included a message that said the candy represented Jesus.

The incident caused the child's mother to remove her daughter from the school district and enroll her in a private school, while school officials support the teacher's decision not to allow the girl to pass out the literature.

Although legal experts differ over whether such information should be given by students in a public school, they agree that it is a thorny issue.

"Everybody has their beliefs," said the child's mother, Donna Blumenfeld. "She was not out trying to change their beliefs, and if they were offended by it, they could just throw it away. They don't have to keep it."

The student, Renee Crout, brought in 27 candy canes to pass out as gifts Dec. 17, which was the day before Christmas vacation. Each candy cane included a typed tale about candy canes that ended with: "The white stands for the pureness of Jesus. The red represents the blood Jesus shed for us. The candy cane upside down makes a 'J' for Jesus."

The child now attends Woodstock Christian School, a ministry of the Woodstock Assembly of God Church.

District 200 Superintendent Ellyn Wrzeski said it historically had been the district's policy to prohibit passing out such items.

"We don't allow students to distribute materials that are not related to a classroom discussion," Wrzeski said. "We try to be consistent with that. It isn't just religions that we apply this to, it is other issues as well."

Emily Buss, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said the district's decision likely would be upheld by courts.

"People have a right to exercise their own religions," she said. "But what makes this a weaker case is that because the student is in third grade, you can almost certainly assume this is what the parent wanted."

Buss said third-graders likely would not be able to differentiate between who was delivering the message the child or the school district.

That confusion could cause the courts to find the action in violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause, Buss said.

A comparable case in Oregon, which spurred federal litigation, ended in a settlement between the school district and kindergarten student who passed out candy canes with a similar message. The settlement said the boy would be allowed to place the gift on a table in the room but would not be able to hand it out.

"Some of these schools don't understand the constitutional principles," said Stuart Roth, senior counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice and attorney for the Oregon kindergartner. "It's a shame that school officials feel this is a constitutional dilemma because it's not."

The American Center for Law & Justice in Washington, D.C., is a constitutional-law group committed to protecting citizens' religious and constitutional freedoms.

Roth said the Dean Street School student should have been allowed to hand out the gift.

"If it were the teacher or the principal, that would be another story," he said.