At a time that you may be asking what can and cannot be done in public schools regarding Christmas, here is the legal answer to those questions.
Remember our kids should be a "light" wherever they are!
The Twelve Rules of Christmas®
(Compiled by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute)
Unfortunately,
Christmas has become a time of controversy over what can or cannot be
done in terms of celebrating the holiday. In order to clear up much of
the misunderstanding, the following twelve rules are offered:
- Public
school students’ written or spoken personal expressions concerning the
religious significance of Christmas (e.g., T-shirts with the slogan,
“Jesus Is the Reason for the Season”) may not be censored by school
officials absent evidence that the speech would cause a substantial
disruption.1
- So
long as teachers are generally permitted to wear clothing or jewelry or
have personal items expressing their views about the holidays,
Christian teachers may not be prohibited from similarly expressing
their views by wearing Christmas-related clothing or jewelry or
carrying Christmas-related personal items.2
- Public
schools may teach students about the Christmas holiday, including its
religious significance, so long as it is taught objectively for secular
purposes such as its historical or cultural importance, and not for the
purpose of promoting Christianity.3
- Public
school teachers may send Christmas cards to the families of their
students so long as they do so on their own time, outside of school
hours.4
- Public
schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious
themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a
secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if
the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday
songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays.5
- Public
schools may not require students to sing Christmas songs whose messages
conflict with the students’ own religious or nonreligious beliefs.6
- Public
school students may not be prohibited from distributing literature to
fellow students concerning the Christmas holiday or invitations to
church Christmas events on the same terms that they would be allowed to
distribute other literature that is not related to schoolwork.7
- Private
citizens or groups may display crèches or other Christmas symbols in
public parks subject to the same reasonable time, place, and manner
restrictions that would apply to other similar displays.8
- Government
entities may erect and maintain celebrations of the Christmas holiday,
such as Christmas trees and Christmas light displays, and may include
crèches in their displays at least so long as the purpose for including
the crèche is not to promote its religious content and it is placed in
context with other symbols of the Holiday season as part of an effort
to celebrate the public Christmas holiday through its traditional
symbols.9
- Neither
public nor private employers may prevent employees from decorating
their offices for Christmas, playing Christmas music, or wearing
clothing related to Christmas merely because of their religious content
so long as these activities are not used to harass or intimidate others.10
- Public
or private employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs require
that they not work on Christmas must be reasonably accommodated by
their employers unless granting the accommodation would impose an undue
hardship on the employer.11
- Government
recognition of Christmas as a public holiday and granting government
employees a paid holiday for Christmas does not violate the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.12
For more information, email The Rutherford Institute at staff@rutherford.org.
Endnotes:
1. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969); Nixon v. Northern Local Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 383 F. Supp. 2d 965 (S.D. Ohio 2005).
2.
See Tinker, 393 U.S. at 506 (“It can hardly be argued that either
students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of
speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate”). See also Tucker v. California Dep’t of Ed., 97 F.3d 1204 (9th Cir. 1996) and Nichol v. Arin Intermediate Unit 28, 268 F. Supp. 2d 536 (W.D. Pa. 2003).
3. See Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39, 42 (1980); Grove v. Mead Sch. Dist., 753 F.2d 1528, 1534 (9th Cir. 1985).
4. See Pickering v. Bd. of Ed., 391 U.S. 563 (1968); Wigg v. Sioux Falls Sch. Dist. 49-5, 382 F.3d 807, 814 (8th Cir. 2004).
5. Bauchman v. West High School, 132 F.3d 542, 554 (10th Cir. 1997); Florey v. Sioux Falls School Dist., 619 F.2d 1311 (8th Cir. 1980); Sechler v. State College Area Sch. Dist., 121 F.Supp. 2d. 439 (M.D. Penn. 2000).
6. Id. at 557.
7. Hedges v. Wauconda Comm. Unit Sch. Dist. No. 118, 9 F.3d 1295, 1297-98 (7th Cir. 1993). See “Secretary of Education’s Statement on Religious Expression,” http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html, site visited Oct. 21, 2005.
8. See Capital Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753 (1995); Kreisner v. City of San Diego, 1 F.3d 775 (9th Cir. 1993); McCreary v. Stone, 739 F.2d 716 (2d Cir. 1984); Snowden v. Town of Bay Harbor Islands, 358 F. Supp. 2d 1178 (S.D. Fla. 2004).
9. See County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 U.S. 573 (1989); Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984); ACLU v. Schundler, 168 F.3d 92 (3rd Cir. 1999); Amancio v. Town of Somerset, 28 F.Supp. 2d 677 (D.C. Mass. 1998).
10. § 42 U.S.C. 2000(e)(j); Warnock v. Archer, 380 F.3d 1076, 1082 (8th Cir. 2004); Tucker v. California Dep’t of Ed., 97 F.3d 1204 (9th Cir. 1996); Brown v. Polk County, 61 F.3d 650, 659 (8th Cir. 1995).
11. Pielech v. Massasoit Greyhound, Inc., 668 N.E. 2d 1298 (Mass. 1996).
12. Ganulin v. United States, 71 F.Supp. 2d 824 (S.D. OH 1999), aff’d 2000 U.S. App. Lexis 33889 (6th Cir. 2000). See also Bridenbaugh v. O’Bannon, 185 F.3d 796 (7th Cir. 2000); Koenick v. Felton, 190 F.3d 259 (4th Cir. 1999).
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