Go Ask Your Daddy - I Can't Write About That, Can I?

I can’t write about that can I? Isn’t that against the law in school?

What are they teaching in schools nowadays? We are in America! The land of the free and the home of the brave! Remember the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Remember freedom of speech?

Of course you can write and talk about your Christianity. The First Amendment does not prohibit religious speech by students. Students therefore have the same right to engage in individual or group prayer and religious discussion during the school day as they do to engage in any other activity. (adapted from the American Center for Law and Justice which summarizes the law here.)

The Department of Education guidelines below should clear up some of the confusion.

Students have the right to pray or have religious discussions during the school day-provided that students do so in a nondisruptive manner. These rights include the right to speak to, and attempt to persuade, their peers about religious topics just as they do with regard to political topics.

Students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray before tests to the same extent they may engage in comparable nondisruptive activities. Local school authorities ... may not structure or administer such rules to discriminate against religious activity or speech.

Students have a right to distribute religious literature to their schoolmates on the same terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature that is unrelated to school curriculum or activities. Schools may impose the same reasonable time, place, and manner or other constitutional restrictions on distribution of religious literature as they do on nonschool literature generally, but they may not single out religious literature for special regulation.

Students may display religious messages on items of clothing to the same extent that they are permitted to display other comparable messages.

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.

If anyone tells you otherwise, not only are they wrong, but they are committing a violation of the law. One other thing to keep in mind is that sharing our faith is a command from our Savior. It is something we must do - even if they take away our right to do it.