“A Nevada public charter school apologized to a sixth grade student for censoring her from using a Bible verse in a school PowerPoint presentation, according to the Liberty Institute, the North Texas-based religious liberties law firm which has represented the family involved in the matter. Twelve-year-old Mackenzie Fraiser attends Somerset Academy in North Las Vegas and was told by her teacher in February that she could not use the New Testament passage John 3:16 for the assigned ‘All About Me’ project, which had to include an ‘inspirational saying’ according to documentation provided by the Liberty Institute. When the girl’s father, Tim, a pastor, learned about the situation in late April, he contacted the school. Then, he received a letter from Assistant Principal Jenyan Martinez advising him that when Mackenzie submitted the project ‘the matter became one of having a captive audience that would be subject to her religious beliefs,’ which in her understanding would violate US Department of Education (USDE) policy. In a demand letter authored by Liberty Institute Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys on Wednesday, May 20, in which the firm sought an apology from Somerset Academy for the youngster they gave school officials 10 days to redress the project to avoid legal action. Despite the principal’s interpretation of USDE policy, Dys cited in his letter that ‘it is a bedrock constitutional principle that students retain First Amendment freedoms while at school. Private student speech, such as student class assignments, is protected by the Constitution and the government must remain neutral toward the private expression of religion by students.’ Moreover, Dys underscored that the US Department of Education (USDE) ‘affirmed this longstanding position of neutrality toward the free exercise of religion by students – including such expression as part of a student’s written or oral classroom assignments.’ Fraiser had the constitutional right to express her beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. He also stated, ‘Contrary to Assistant Principal Martinez’s incorrect--and unlawful--assumption, when a student speaks within the classroom, her speech does not automatically become government speech. Decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence and the United States Department of Education guidelines come to precisely the opposite conclusion: absent other factors not present in this situation, student assignments constitute private student speech that cannot be censored by school officials (teachers, administrators, etc.) based on the religious content of their submissions.’ Two days later, a letter of apology from Somerset Academy followed on Friday, May 22 in which they acknowledged that the teacher and the public charter school administrator ‘acted in good faith at all times’ but they were wrong.” “Nevada School Apologizes,” Breitbart, May 24, 2015 Comments are closed.
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