Questions:

1: May a music teacher include religious music in choral programs?

2: May students include religious expression in their assignments, artwork, etc.?

3: May a teacher include examples of religious expression by national leaders in the history curriculum?

4: Must a school remove the Bible from the school library?

5: May a teacher include religious references in correspondence with parents?

6: May a teacher include religious references in correspondence with other teachers?

Answers:

1:May a music teacher include religious music in choral programs?

Yes, religious music may be taught if it is “presented objectively as part of a secular program of education”. For example, a choral program may include Christmas carols and other religious music. Students may be given the opportunity to perform “a full range of music, poetry and drama that is likely to be of interest to the students and their audience.

A federal appellate court has explained that “to allow students only to study and not to perform religious art, literature and music when such works have developed an independent secular and artistic significance would give students a truncated view of our culture”. The religious content of the programs must be “presented objectively as part of a secular program of education..” While allowing the inclusion of Christmas carols in school programs, the same court noted that an elementary school program could not include a “Christmas quiz” in which the students responded as a group to questions by the teacher regarding the Christmas story.

Two other federal appellate courts have allowed choirs to sing religious songs. One federal appellate court expressly permitted a school choir to have a religious song as its theme song because legitimate secular reasons existed for maintaining it as the theme song. The court wrote:

Indeed, to forbid [the school district] from having a theme song that is religious would force [the school district] to disqualify the majority of appropriate choral music simply because it is religious. Within the world of choral music, such a restriction would require hostility, not neutrality, toward religion… A position of neutrality towards religion must allow choir directors to recognize the fact that most choral music is religious. Limiting the number of times a religious piece of music can be sung is tantamount to censorship and does not send students a message of neutrality.

Another federal appellate court rejected a student’s lawsuit that challenged, as an Establishment Clause violation, the number of religious songs performed by a high school choir, including several written by contemporary composers. The choir performed secular songs as well. The court noted:

Any choral curriculum designed to expose students to the full array of vocal music culture… can be expected to reflect a significant number of religious songs. Moreover, a vocal music instructor would be expected to select any particular piece of sacred choral music, like any particular piece of secular choral music, in part for its unique qualities useful to teach a variety of vocal music skills (i.e. sight reading, intonation, harmonization, expression).

The court also rejected the student’s challenge to choir performances at religious sites, such as churches. The court determined that a choir director could wish to use churches or other religious sites because they might be “acoustically superior to high school auditoriums or gymnasiums” and would give the teacher an opportunity to “showcase his choir to the general public in an atmosphere conducive to the performance of serious choral music.”

A federal district court prohibited a school secretary from leading a Gospel Choir that met on school grounds immediately after school as a student extracurricular group. If the school secretary wanted to continue to participate in the choir’s practices on school campus immediately after school, the choir would have to change its repertoire to include songs that had no religious references, although it could continue also to sing religious songs. The choir sang at school assemblies and at community events, including at churches.

2: May students include religious expression in their assignments, artwork, etc.?

Yes. The DOE guidance letter specifically states:

Students assignments: Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the school.

A federal appellate court upheld a school policy that protected “[student-initiated expressions to questions or assignments which reflect their beliefs or non-beliefs about a religious theme.” The policy protected students’ religious expression of belief or non-belief in “compositions, art forms, music, speech and debate.”

A handful of court decisions have failed to protect this right of students to freedom of expression. Those decisions do not affect the ability of teachers to respect, in an objective manner, the religious expression of their students, Even those decisions did not require a teacher to censor students’ religious expression.

3: May a teacher include examples of religious expression by national leaders in the history curriculum?

Yes. The curriculum may include “examples of our national leaders lifting up their minds and hearts for worship, guidance, supplication, and thanksgiving.” Similarly, historical documents with religious references may be studied in the curriculum.

4: Must a school remove the Bible from the school library?

No. Inclusion of a Bible in a school library is appropriate. Indeed, one federal court ordered a school to put a Bible back onto school library shelves, tating that “it is inconceivable that the Bible should be excluded from a school library.” The court concluded that “[t]he Establishment Clause does not require that religious books be removed from the shelves of school libraries.”

5: May a teacher include religious references in correspondence with parents?

It depends on whether the teacher is writing to students’ parents in his capacity as a teacher. If he is , then the letters may be considered part of his instructional program which can be regulated by the school officials. Schools officials may require that he not include religious references in letters written to parents in his capacity as a teacher. The school should not be able to regulate communications to students’ parents on matters unrelated to the school.

6: May a teacher include religious references in correspondence with other teachers?

The First Amendment should protect the right of teachers to express their personal viewpoints on religion in conversations and written communication with other teachers just as they may express their personal viewpoints on a variety of topics.