Student rights and protections

¶ … freedom of speech, freedom of religion is probably one of the most important rights the Constitution guarantees the citizens of the United States. These rights are particularly important in the public school environment, where students are prepared to face the challenges of college and adult life. Unfortunately, the reality often does not match the ideal of the law. The public school system is often set up in such a way that students are victimized in a variety of ways, including the right to freely practice their religion in a peaceful way.

One such experience I had was when my Muslim friend first came to our school. Up to a very recent time, the school has been fairly homogeneous in terms of religion. Neither the teachers nor the students had much experience with religions other than Christianity in a variety of forms. Hence, when a number of Muslims enrolled in the school, it was something of a phenomenon.

The friend in question was assigned to my classroom. During lunch breaks, he had a habit of bringing his Quran with him and reading from it as soon as he had finished eating. He did not do this in a very obvious manner, but was not secretive about it either. When the novelty began to wear off, one or two students initially began to join him for lunch and spoke to him about his religion. He was very friendly and willing to share his beliefs and information. We soon warmed to him, and soon he had a fairly large group of students who joined him for talking about religion. Interestingly, he was as interested in Christianity as we were in Islam, and our meetings became a platform for sharing religious views.

My friend continued to bring his Quran to school, while some of us brought our Bibles to compare scriptures and ideas. Being in the same class together, I soon became friends with him, and we began visiting each other's houses. Unfortunately, both our parents were quite serious about the purity of their religion, and they initially had great difficulty accepting our friendship. In addition, my friend's parents were particularly adamant that he should "bear the light" of his religion to the school environment by winning converts for Islam. When they learned that their son was involved in meetings where there was a mutual sharing of interreligious ideas, they were horrified, and decided to visit the school principal.

The principal explained to them that their son had the right to discuss religious matters with others outside of the class context, and that there was not much that he could do to stop it. The parents however threatened with legal action if the meetings were allowed to continue. The principal decided that the school could not afford a legal battle and decided to give in to the parents and force the students to refrain from meeting on the school premises. In this way, the students who chose to participate in the meetings had their right of free speech and religion violated. The Constitution quite clearly allows students to meet in religious groups of their own free will, outside of the class context, and in a peaceful manner. By removing this right, the principal has violated the Constitution of the United States.

We reacted by signing a petition requesting permission to have our right of assembly reinstated. My parents also heard about the dispute, and with several other parents decided to side with my friend's parents. They put considerable pressure on our principal to uphold his decision to violate our right. Eventually, the principal nearly had a school riot on his hands, with the students either siding with the parents or with us in disputing the right to gather and discuss religious matters. The situation became intolerable.

Eventually, our principal decided to have a meeting involving the group of students involved and all their parents. At the meeting, we discussed our desire to learn about each other without necessarily being converted to the other's religion. We explained to our parents that we were simply exercising our rights as citizens of the country. Refusing us this right now, while we were young, could have serious repercussions for our future as adults. Refusing our right to gather and discuss our views in a peaceful manner now would set a precedent of intolerance later in life as well. Furthermore, it would set an example of intolerance throughout the school, resulting in possible further legal repercussions. The school would in effect be disobeying the country's law by refusing the right for us to discuss religious matters freely and in our own time on school premises.

The parents did not like it, but understood that we made a good point in terms of the Constitution. They did not wish to disadvantage the school or the learning process; something that would happen if the principal and the parents were to become involved in a legal dispute. The parents therefore had to grudgingly agree to reinstate our right for discussing religious matters outside of the class context. We only had to promise not to convert to other religions unless we discussed it with them and our religious leaders first. This was something we were happy to agree to, as none of us were interested in converting; we just wanted to expand our understanding of other cultures and other religions. My friend's parents also agreed to relieve him of his "duty" to convert us to his religion. In fact, after the meeting, the emotions were calmed to such an extent that I even saw all the groups of parents talking together in a friendly way.

An even that probably relates most closely to this memory is the one of the 7th-grade Muslim student in Maine, as reported by PR Newswire (2009). She practiced her religious freedom by discreetly praying during her free time or lunch break. Like my friend, she made no attempt to make others join her, or to indoctrinate or convert her friends, nor did she advocate her religion in any way or engage in religious practices within the classroom. However, when officials discovered that she was praying, they forbade the practice entirely. The officials summarily removed her right, without paying attention to her attempts at explaining the importance to her of prayer. Now the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is seeking to reinstate her right to pray during break and lunchtimes at school. Currently her mother is obliged to pick her up from school so that she can conduct her prayers in a park.

In the same way as our case, the 7th-grade girl was not harming others in any way. She was completely discreet about her practices and did not seek to draw any attention to herself or her religion. It is therefore a blatant violation of her rights as a student to refuse her the right to pray. There are several freedom of religion cases that has gone as far as the Supreme Court.

One interesting case is that of the Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (U.S. Courts, 2000), in which involved a member of the student body leading the football team of a Texas high school in prayer. The students argued that this was their Constitutional right, as it was a student-led initiative, and not officially sponsored by the school. Opponents however argued that the public address system used for such prayers belonged to the school, and should therefore not be allowed.

Another similar case was a much older one, involving Engel v. Vitale in 1962 (Student Rights in Public High Schools, 2009). Here, parents of students in a public New York school made a case against the practice of starting each day with prayer. This, in the parents' opinion, constituted religious oppression and was therefore not to be allowed by school officials.

A similar case is that of the School District of Abington Township v. Schempp, 1963 (Student Rights in Public High Schools, 2009). In this case, students in a Pennsylvanian High School were subjected to the recital of ten Bible verses to start each morning at school. Again, this was regarded as a violation of their Fourteenth Amendment right in terms of freedom and equality of religion.

The Constitution is very clear on providing all citizens with the right to religious freedom, as well as the right to freedom from religion. This, like all the other Constitutional rights of the country, extends to high school students as well. Indeed, according to the Religious Tolerance (2009) Website, adhering to the Constitution means neither prohibiting nor favoring any religion or indeed secularism. Specifically, this means that no religion may be promoted as better than another or superior to a secular lifestyle. On the other hand the secular lifestyle may not be promoted as somehow better than any religion. As such, schools may also not be antagonistic towards either religion or secularism, and no religion may be either advanced or inhibited. It is therefore clear that students are allowed to practice or not practice any religion they choose according to how they were raised or according to their individual belief system.