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Questions: 1: 2: Is it legal to pass our CEAI literature at new teachers in-service? 4: Can a public school teacher share Christ with a student after school hours? 5: Is there a legal way to teach Creationism in the public schools? 6: Can a student led Bible Club be started in a public school elementary school? 7: Can a Christian School administrator ask potential employees if they are Christians? 9: What role can a public school employee play in a student religious club? 10: Can a public school teacher teach a student Bible Study during lunch time? 11: Can public school coaches lead their teams in prayer before games? 12: Can a teachers in public schools have a Bible on their desk?
Answers: CEAI does not limit its membership to teachers who are not members of unions. CEAI is a professional association of Christian educators. Unions cannot prevent you from joining other organizations, at least one like CEAI which doesn't participate in any type of collective bargaining with the schools. Compulsory union membership is prohibited, and although a union may collect an agency fee in some cases, it may not compel the employee to pay union dues. Even the agency fee can be restricted from going to support political and ideological causes with which the employee disagrees. Thus, as noted above, the agency fee can be limited to the cost of collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment. Although the employee does not have to join and may resign after joining, nonmembers are still entitled to all of the employee benefits under the collective bargaining agreement, and the union is obligated to represent such employees. Nonmembers may also be able to vote, attend meetings or become involved in other union activity. Employees, therefore, are still entitled to the collective bargaining benefits of a union, while not having to support repugnant causes.
Literature distribution in the public schools is governed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The school is prevented from prohibiting the distribution of literature based on the content or viewpoint of the literature being distributed. This means that if the school attempts to prohibit the distribution of CEAI literature because of the content or subject matter of the literature, the school would be violating the Constitution.
Email signatures for public school employees are subject to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Some school districts have policies governing the use of email signatures. Those policies may or may not be constitutional. The basic rule is that a policy limiting the items and descriptions employees may put on their email signature must be non-discriminatory and must apply to everyone. For instance, if other employees are allowed to place other titles on their email signatures that are not part of their official job duties, then you should have the right to do so as well. However, if the school does not allow any employee the right to place an "unofficial title" on the email signature, then you would not be able to do so either.
4: Can a public school teacher share Christ with a student after school hours? Most teachers are subject to different time requirements for employment. "Contract time" can extend to the end of the class time or may extend to several hours after classes end. You should check the terms of your employment to determine when you are "on the clock" and when you are "off the clock."
Perhaps the best way to answer your question is to quote an excerpt from Liberty Counsel's resource on "Legally Teaching Creation Science." You can obtain the entire resource on Liberty Counsel's website under the Resources section. "It takes a major leap in faith to assume that evolution demonstrates how animals and plants originated." After you cover the scientific issues regarding origins, you can then consider how world religions view origins. You can also point out that it is important to look at origins, because from a philosophical standpoint, you must know where you originated. You must know who you are, and you must know your destiny. If you do not know one of those three, there is something lacking in your self-understanding. Some scientists have tried to point to evolution as our origin. Other scientists have tried to point to creation as our origin. World religions look at the origin of the world as part of theology. For example, you can discuss the Egyptian theology of creation. The Egyptians in their Memphite Creation writings spoke about God, whom they called Ptah, as the one who brought the world into existence by a word. He spoke and the world came into existence. As for me, I don't mind comparing Christianity to other non-Christian religions. You remember the Old Testament prophet when he prayed to God while several hundred other prophets prayed to Baal to bring fire in a demonstrable way. He did not say, "Do not pray to Baal". He said go ahead and pray to your God. I will pray to my God, and we will see which one answers by fire. You know the result. Whenever you put truth and falsehood beside each other, there is no question in my mind that the truth will win. I have no reservation about using another religion when I'm talking about Christianity. If I am afraid that Jesus is not big enough, powerful enough, and convincing enough to put himself and his word along side some other word or some other false theology, then I do not have enough understanding or faith in my own God. So it does not bother me to allow someone else to have a platform. That is why it does not bother me to have someone teach evolution as long as you have the equal opportunity to teach abrupt appearance or creation. "World religions look at the origin of the world as part of theology." At any rate, in addition to the Egyptian creation theory you could talk about the Babylonian creation theory. Then you can discuss the creation story in the book of Genesis and you can read from the book of Genesis. Whether it takes one day, several days, or several weeks, you can conclude your presentation by summing up the topic. You can overview the different evolution and creation theories. The bottom line, when all is said and done, is that both theories must be accepted by faith. When you put all the information before the students, it will probably be the first they've ever heard of origins besides evolution. Until the time they come to your class and hear you speak, they've probably heard one view, and that one view teaches evolution as fact and creation as myth. When they come out of your class they will say that is not true. You've have opened the door for them to make a decision. IDEAS FOR TEACHING CREATION While teaching creation and evolution you can ask the students, "How many of you believe that you had apes or monkeys in your ancestry tree?" Of course, you'll probably get a lot of laughter. Open the class for discussion. A teacher can bring outside material into their classroom, whether on creation or other issues. You can bring in an outside speaker. What happens when you bring in an outside speaker? Is the speaker an agent of the state? No, the speaker is an individual citizen you invited. You can also host a debate format, where you have an evolutionist and a creationist debate the topic. Let them debate and let the students ask questions. The main thing is you've opened up the market place in contrast to the narrow view of the market place that they have been taught. You expanded their horizons. You have allowed the students to have contact with another view that they probably never heard of or had contact with before your class. One particularly good video is the Mt. St. Helens video produced by the Institute for Creation Research. I don't know if you've ever seen this or not, but if you have not seen it, you ought to order a copy. It is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen on this topic. The video talks about the explosion of Mt. St. Helens. It talks about Spirit Lake and how the Petrified Forest may have formed. You and your students may think it takes millions of years to create the petrified trees. The video shows how the North Slope of the volcano came down, hit the lake, caused the water to go up the mountain beside it, broke the trees and brought the trees back down into the lake. Then the trees got water logged and some of them turned upright as the root ends were heavier. The trees settled on the bottom at different times and the sediment stabilized these trees in a standing position. In a short period of time a petrified forest can be formed. The video also shows how layering can form in a matter of months rather than millions of years. "Teachers have a lot more liberty than you think to teach creation and to teach religious and Christian influences."
Student-initiated religious clubs in the middle and high schools are governed by the Equal Access Act, a federal statute. However, the Equal Access Act does not apply to elementary schools. Even though the Equal Access Act does not apply to elementary schools, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution does. Therefore, if other student clubs are allowed on campus, then a Bible club would also be allowed.
Employment discrimination claims are governed by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII generally prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Title VII applies to all hiring and employment practices including hiring, firing and employment conditions. As an example, one court has held that a religious school could dismiss a music teacher for carrying on an adulterous relationship with the father of children enrolled in the school, even though she claimed that her private life was irrelevant to her duties as a teacher of music. The court reasoned that a religious school could make adherence to the moral standards of the church a requirement of continued employment. See Gosche v. Calvert High School, 997 F.Supp. 867 (N.D. Ohio 1998). Therefore, you may safely base hiring and employment decisions on religion and whether the employee will adhere to the religious requirements and doctrine of the school. These decisions also encompass questions asked during the interview, other conditions during employment and termination of employment.
Employees who object to union membership are not required to join, but they may be required to pay an agency fee. If an employee objects to having any of the agency fee used by the union to support ideological positions with which the employee disagrees, the objection should be made in writing to the union. The letter should state that the employee objects to the collection and expenditure by the union of any funds for any purpose other than for the employee's pro rata share of the union's cost of collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment. The employee should also request a copy of the union's procedural rights and should demand that the union (1) reduce the fees to an amount that includes only lawfully chargeable costs associated with collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment, (2) provide notice of the calculation of that amount which must be verified by an independent certified public accountant, and (3) provide notice of the procedure that the union has adopted to hold your fees in an interest-bearing escrow account. The employee has the right to challenge the union's calculation and to have the union's decision reviewed by an impartial decision maker. Although the employee does not have to join and may resign after joining, nonmembers are still entitled to all of the employee benefits under the collective bargaining agreement, and the union is obligated to represent such employees. Nonmembers may also be able to vote, attend meetings or become involved in other union activity. Employees, therefore, are still entitled to the collective bargaining benefits of a union, while not having to support repugnant causes.
Student clubs are split into 2 categories. Student-initiated clubs that occur during the school day and after school clubs that simply happen to take place on school campus. Clubs that occur during the school day in middle and high schools are governed by the Equal Access Act. That federal statute does state that a teacher is only allowed to be at the club in a "non-participatory" capacity. See 20 U.S.C. section 4071(c)(3). However, if a club occurs after school hours and just happens to be on campus, then the Equal Access Act does not apply and the restriction on teachers being involved in a "non-participatory capacity" do not apply. This is so long as the teacher is in the club after school ends and when she is on her own time. When the teacher is on her own time, she can do whatever she pleases just as any other private citizen would do. This means the teacher could participate in the school club.
Public school teachers, when they are on the clock, are considered agents of the state. As such, they may not engage in proselytizing activities during that time. This means that if your lunch period is considered time when you are on the clock, you may not be allowed to teach the Bible study.
The issue of prayer before football games has recently come before the United States Supreme Court in the case of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe. In that case, the Court ruled that the School could not institute a prayer before the football games. Some coaches pray with their teams before the games, but generally the courts have also prohibited this practice. School officials are considered state actors and as such cannot do anything to establish religion, including prayer. It should be remembered also that what a coach does on his own free time is not subject to the constitutional prohibition against establishing a religion. A coach, after school time and on his own free time can feel free to lead students in prayer as long as it is done in a way where the coach is not doing it as a coach, but as a private citizen (i.e., at a church or in the coach's home are examples).
As educators, you generally have the right to have personal items on your desk. That would also include a Bible. As long as educators do not use their position or personal items as a means of attempting to proselytize, then personal items and even personal religious items are acceptable on a teacher's desk.
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