Jesus Censured - 5 year old goes to court

Catholic News Agency reported 5-year old Antonio Peck had no idea when he turned in his homework assignment--a poster about protecting the environment--that it would land him in federal court. Peck, then a kindergarten student at Baldwinsville, NY’s Catherine McNamara Elementary School, originally turned in his poster-assignment to his teacher in 1999. It featured, among other things, a cut out picture of Jesus--something he reportedly thought applicable to the environment, and the assignment. School officials however, felt otherwise. The rejected a first version of the poster and folded Antonio’s second attempt in half, in order to obscure the image of a kneeling Jesus they thought to be too religious in nature. In 2000, a New York federal court ruled that the school had the right to censor the poster on the grounds of separation of church and state.

That is absurd. No such wall of separation is in the constitution, but if there is any such prohibition it would be to prohibit the school, a part of government, from introducing instruction regarding one particular religion. There is nothing to prohibit a student from expressing a religious belief. In fact the first amentment states: or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

A second court ruled in favor of the school again last year, but on Tuesday, a three judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan unanimously decided that Peck’s constitutional rights may have been violated and recommended the case back to court once again.

They absolutely were violated.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel for Florida-based Liberty Counsel, who is representing Peck said that “The school humiliated Antonio when the teacher folded his poster in half so that the cutout drawing of Jesus could not be seen.”

“To allow a kindergarten poster to be displayed for a few hours on a cafeteria wall, along with 80 other student posters, is far from an establishment of religion. To censor the poster solely because some might perceive a portion of it to be religious is an egregious violation of the Constitution," he said. In the Peck vs. Baldwinsville School District case, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals joined with the ninth and eleventh Circuit Courts who hold the view that discrimination--even in the public school setting--is unconstitutional. Conversely, the first and tenth Circuit Courts opine that discrimination in the public school context is permissible. This split in opinion could land Antonio in the Supreme Court--something which Staver says he would be all for.

That would be fantastic. This is a slam-dunk case.

“I'm elated with the decision,” he said. “Now Antonio will have his day in court.”

Betsy blogged The school is not endorsing religion when one student chooses a religious message for a school assignment. This seems to be more of a free exercise question than an establishment question. I know that the courts defer to school administrators as much as possible, but if schools can't forbid students from wearing black armbands in Tinker v. Des Moines, I don't see why they should be allowed to single out a small child as the one who didn't get his poster hung on the wall. If children don't give up their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate, a five-year old should be able to put Jesus on his environment poster.

And don't you bet that the same school probably has all sorts of assignments where kids have to do activities relating to Greek or Egyptian gods or when they study Buddhism or Hinduism? I bet they would have no problem with a child making a poster for one of those topics. I've seen artwork about such topics many times when I've visted schools. If it's a religion that no one in the school ascribes to, I would hazard a guess that no one would worry about constitutional questions in hanging those posters.

Joanne Jacobs blogged A kindergartener put Jesus into his save-the-environment poster. Before putting it on the wall with all the other posters, school officials folded Jesus out of the picture. It's been in court for five years: Did the five-year-old's poster constitute an establishment of religion? Was he denied his constitutional right to free speech? Is this stupid?

Richard blogged The school humiliated Antonio when the teacher "folded his poster in half" so that the cutout "drawing of Jesus" could not be seen.