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December 1, 1998
Vol. 56
No. 4

Policy Link / A Call for Proactive Policies on Religion

  • The case of Mildred Rosario, a long-term substitute in the Bronx who led several children in a Pentecostal prayer after the students discussed the death of a schoolmate. Rosario, who was fired shortly after the June 1998 incident, is pursuing a grievance against the New York City Board of Education.
  • The case of Zachary Hood, a Medford, New Jersey, child who, in response to a 1st grade assignment to share a favorite tale from home, brought in a story from a children's bible. Zachary's teacher did not permit him to read the story to his classmates, and instead had him read it to her in private. In a subsequent lawsuit and an appeal, courts upheld the teacher's decision.
Despite these noteworthy—and volatile—situations, at no time in recent years has agreement been greater among legal scholars about religious liberty rights in our public schools. The U.S. Department of Education, which earlier this year issued an update of its guidelines, Religious Expression in Public Schools, offers schools general guidance for establishing policies.
But reading federal guidelines and posting them on school office bulletin boards is not enough. The critical next step is community dialogue about the specifics, urges Charles Haynes (see p. 24), an expert on religion and public schools. Open discussion about religious liberty rights enables community members to understand not only what is not appropriate in public schools, but also what is. And questions unique to individual communities can also be explored before costly or bitter situations erupt.
The trust and understanding that educators, students, parents, and other community members build as they explore religious issues will serve them well in discussion of other, more controversial matters, such as sex education.

The Evangelical Exodus

For public educators who have not made it a priority to find common ground over religious matters, two emerging evangelical movements, Exodus 2000 and Rescue 2010, should serve as a wake-up call. These groups, headed by evangelical Protestants E. Ray Moore and Bob Simonds, respectively, are calling for the mass exodus of traditionalist Christians from U.S. public schools. This cry for separation marks a radical shift from earlier efforts to find common ground within public schools.
Most evangelical Christian children in the United States attend public schools, and it is too early to ascertain the impact of the increasingly vocal Exodus 2000 and Rescue 2010 groups. However, public school educators can scarcely afford to decry the efforts of these separationist groups if they have not done all that they can to make schools welcoming to all children of faith.

Joan Montgomery Halford has been a contributor to Educational Leadership.

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