ACLJ to CA School: Religious Expression Protected by First Amendment

By 

Jay Sekulow

|
June 21, 2011

4 min read

Free Speech

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Even though it is summer, we are still working to protect the rights of students in the classroom and are now working on a new case involving a student whose Christian beliefs have been criticized at a community college in California.

 

The student is participating in an online class entitled Introduction to Physical Anthropology.  The professor in the course made her intentions very clear with her syllabus, demonstrating her strong opposition to students including their faith perspectives during online class discussions.

 

Heres part of the syllabus:

 

Please do not turn the discussion board into a religious debate area. If you do, you will be warned once, if you do not comply, you will be dropped from the class. This class entirely focuses on evolution, if you are in conflict with this you must decide if you can deal with that or not, on your own time. Do not waste my time or other students by trying to insinuate it into the class discussions.  [Emphasis added.]

 

As part of an assignment, the professor asked students to write about their experience and/or knowledge of evolutionary theory.  Our client responded that she did not believe in evolution and that she believes humans were created by a Creator and cited Bible verses that supported her beliefs.

 

Her response drew a troubling response from the professor.  The professor removed the students online comments and sent her an email that said:

 

. . . The[re] is no place for biblical quotes in a science class. Please keep them off the discussion board . . . This is not an open forum. It is a science class discussion assignment. If I see more bible quotes, they will be forwarded to the dean and you will be dropped. Make sure you are crystal clear on this.  [Emphasis added.]

 

Further, the professor then sent an email to students which said: 

 

Please no Bible, Koran, Torah, or any other sacred mythology in the discussion board. Anthro 1 is not the place for it. Promoting your religion in the classroom is illegal, If I allow it, we are both breaking the law. Any such material appearing on the discussion board will be deleted [and] uncounted as it is not what is required as per your syllabus. Further transgressions will be dealt with through administration and expulsion may result.  [Emphasis added.]

 

As you can imagine, when we were contacted about this issue by the student, we were very concerned.  We have sent a letter to the school demanding that corrective action be taken.  We clearly explained that it is the suppression of student religious expression in the classroom that is illegalnot student religious expression itselfand as the Supreme Court has said in the Mergens case, schools do not endorse everything they fail to censor.

 

This is another example of a school that needs a lesson in the First Amendment.  While presidents, deans, department chairs, and professors at public colleges have broad discretion to design curriculum and enforce school policies, they must do so within the limits set by the Constitution and federal and state law.  The First Amendment is among the most significant sources of legal authority that public colleges are bound to comply with in their day-to-day operations.

 

A public college instructors decision to ban all student religious perspectives from the classroom, and threaten religious students with removal from the course, raises serious First Amendment concerns. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment has a special application on the campuses of public colleges and universities. In Sweezy v. New Hampshire, the Court stated that [t]he essentiality of freedom in the community of American universities is almost self-evident and also noted that [t]eachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, [and] to gain new maturity and understanding.

 

Additionally, in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, the Supreme Court declared:

 

the First Amendment . . . does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom. The vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools. The classroom is peculiarly the marketplace of ideas. The Nations future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth out of a multitude of tongues, [rather] than through any kind of authoritative selection.

 

Weve sent a letter to school officials and asked them to give us assurances that the professor will be instructed that student religious expression in response to class assignments such as our clients comment regarding her understanding of evolution is protected by the First Amendment.

 

Well keep you posted on this case.