What is religion's place in public schools?

Mat-Su school district officials address thorny issue of how students may celebrate holidays

November 27, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Mat-Su School Board members received a packet last week, spelling out the limits of religious expression in public school.

School Board President Sarah Welton distributed the packet, &#8220Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools,” which offers suggestions on how educators should negotiate the increasingly controversial boundaries between religious freedom and secular education.

Welton said she handed out the information after she and at least one other board member received letters and phone calls this month from a Valley woman concerned that religious beliefs were affecting Mat-Su classrooms during the holidays.

Both Welton and board member Larry DeVilbiss communicated with the woman, whom they said objected to a Mat-Su teacher's refusal to celebrate Halloween in the classroom.

&#8220Instead they had a harvest party,” DeVilbiss explained after the Nov. 16 school board meeting. &#8220That led to a discussion about other holidays and I said, ‘Well, Halloween is over but hopefully your kid will be able to enjoy Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.'”

Those words were little comfort, DeVilbiss explained, because the woman mainly opposed celebrating any religious-based holiday in public schools.

&#8220She thinks schools should only have secular holidays and so we got quite a dialogue going about that,” DeVilbiss said. &#8220To me, diversity means that we really shouldn't rule out something because it is a mainstream religious-rooted holiday.”

Welton handed out the packet in an attempt to clarify the few court rulings that exist in regard to religion in public schools.

&#8220I passed out the information to show what the general understanding is from court rulings,” she said.

The packet offers rough guidelines but also states that case law on religious holidays in public schools is scant.

&#8220Because the Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue, there are no final or definitive answers,” the packet stated.

One page refers educators to the Sioux Falls, S.D., school district as a widely accepted, court-tested example of acceptable guidelines between secular public schooling and religious expression. The Sioux Falls district allows religious themes in school-sponsored activities and programs so long as they are presented as part of the curriculum and in an objective manner that explains the cultural and religious heritage of a particular holiday.

The packet goes on to explain that religious symbols such as a cross, menorah, crescent and others are permitted in public schools as teaching aids or as temporary examples of the religious and cultural heritage of certain holidays.

With the Christmas season fast approaching, many Mat-Su schools plan to hold music concerts, plays, choral performances and other holiday events.

On Wednesday, Mat-Su School's assistant superintendent of education, George Troxel, said it is important for teachers to tie religious information into the curriculum, while giving equal weight to all religions. In regard to classroom activities, Troxel cited the school board's policy, which states, &#8220Classroom decorations and costumes during holidays may express seasonal themes which are not religious in nature.”

&#8220The tricky point comes when deciding what constitutes a religious celebration and how the Supreme Court has ruled,” Troxel said. &#8220My understanding is that they have not really come out and ruled on that issue yet.”

In the coming weeks, public school teachers, principals and administrators across the country will try to decipher the proper expression of religious holidays. As they do, national organizations such as the Liberty Council are watching to make sure religious expression gets its due.

Liberty Council is a nonprofit public interest law firm that recently made national headlines by launching the &#8220Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” which seeks to inform educators about acceptable religious expressions in public schools. The Liberty Council specializes in constitutional law and claims to have 750 lawyers ready to aid educators or students in all 50 states if they believe they are wrongly restricted from religious expression.

In a memo to schools, churches and other organizations, the Liberty Council explained that public schools are not religion-free zones.

&#8220A holiday display in a classroom may include a nativity scene or other religious imagery so long as the context also includes secular symbols,” the memo states. &#8220A choral performance may include religious songs. Indeed the majority of the songs may be religious so long as the performance also includes secular holiday songs.”

In 2004, Dr. Jerry Prevo, pastor of Anchorage Baptist Temple, joined the Liberty Council's Christmas campaign by launching an ad in Alaska newspapers to explain which religious expressions are allowed in public school. This year, churches from across the country are participating in similar efforts.

As far as local classrooms are concerned, Troxel said he encourages them to limit Christmas parties as much as possible. He was quick to add, however, that Christmas parties are permitted and students and teachers may even sing Christmas songs such as &#8220Silent Night” if they like.

&#8220If ‘Silent Night' was followed by a sermon or a prayer, that crosses the line,” he said, while acknowledging that those lines are often hard to draw.

&#8220Anytime we approach religious holidays, we always have to be careful.”

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.