Attorneys Will Appeal Dismissal of Christian Teacher's Censorship Suit
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
March 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A civil liberties group is appealing a federal judge's ruling that upholds a decision by a Virginia school district to remove prayer-themed posters from a Christian teacher's classroom wall.Last summer, Spanish teacher William Lee sued Tabb High School in Yorktown, Virginia, alleging the school violated his free-speech rights by confiscating Christian-themed postings in his classroom while he was out sick. The teacher, who also advises a Christian student club at the school, had displayed news articles about George W. Bush's faith and a picture of him praying; a National Day of Prayer flyer; and a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge.
Another article posted in the schoolroom dealt with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and his prayer meetings with staff members. Other items relating to prayer and faith traditions were displayed, including pictures and articles relating to the religious practices of Mayan, pre-Incan, and Incan civilizations as well as a poster depicting the pantheon of Mayan "creature gods."
Lee feels the posted items were all consistent with Tabb High School's longstanding policy of letting instructors place on their classroom walls and bulletin boards both general educational and personal materials that are in keeping with the school's educational mission and instructional objectives. He says other teachers at the school have followed and continue to follow this practice.
But in October 2004, after being absent due to illness, the Christian teacher returned to school and discovered that a number of materials relating to Christian religious expression had been removed from his classroom walls. School officials say they removed the postings from Lee's classroom after a parent complained.
In particular, the Spanish teacher noted that one display comprised of a montage of images had references to Christianity and the cross removed while images apparently deemed less offensive were left uncensored.
Christian Teacher's Fight for Free Expression
In August 2005, The Rutherford Institute filed a lawsuit against the school district on Lee's behalf, alleging that the selective removal of Christian materials from his classroom displays constituted viewpoint discrimination and therefore violated the First Amendment. Institute attorneys argued that school officials with the York County School Division had deprived the teacher of his rights to freedom of speech and equal protection under the law.
However, in her recent ruling, Judge Rebecca Beach Smith concluded that the items removed from Lee's displays were instructional tools and curriculum materials and were thus subject to school review. She also found that Lee's free-speech rights were limited because he was teaching in a public school.
Lee's attorney, Doug McKusick with the Rutherford Institute, finds the judge's decision puzzling. "In the filing papers," he notes, "it was both the contention of us and seemed to be accepted by the other side that this was really private speech -- that this was Mr. Lee's expression of his own individual points of view or of things that were of interest to him -- and not part of the curriculum."
McKusick also takes issue with the judge's broad definition of what constitutes curriculum. "Generally," he points out, "it had been allowed at the high school for teachers to post things that were of personal interest to them, such as pictures of their kids or posters of sports teams, or that sort of thing. So Mr. Lee, in accordance with that custom, did the same thing."
Yet, because religious topics were addressed in the teacher's postings, "the principal felt they had to come down," the Rutherford Institute attorney explains. However, he believes Tabb High School officials created a forum within which instructors were allowed and even encouraged to engage in personal expression.
The judge in Lee v. York County School Division ruled otherwise, holding instead that Lee's expression was as an employee of the district in the course of the school's curriculum and was therefore subject to school officials' plenary control. Rutherford Institute attorneys are filing an appeal of the court's ruling.
Steve Taylor, another Institute-affiliated attorney, says school officials that "tell a teacher to check his constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door" are denying the instructor's fundamental right of self expression. Furthermore, he says, for a federal court to accept the argument that teachers should leave their religious beliefs at home "flies in the face of long-standing Supreme Court rulings to the contrary."
