Tennessee School District Under Attack for Permitting Religious Activity

ACLU Backing Effort to Ban Religious Expression from School

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2006—After decades of debate, one Tennessee school district is still having to defend its right to allow the free exercise of religion in a public elementary school.  The Wilson County School System-along with its director and Lakeview Elementary School's principal, assistant principal, and a Kindergarten teacher-are being sued by two parents on behalf of their son, a former Lakeview student, alleging that their son was the victim of "unconstitutional religious activities."
 
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the nation's top conservative public interest law firm, is assisting in the representation of the defendants.
 
"The Supreme Court has long held that there is no constitutional conflict when students exercise their freedom of religion in public settings-even in public schools," said Larry Crain, senior counsel of the ACLJ, co-counsel for the educators.
 
The plaintiffs argue that their son's constitutional rights were violated by (among other things) having to walk by a group of students and parents praying at a flag pole, by participating in a lesson about Thanksgiving that reenacted a pilgrim prayer, and by attending a school that acknowledged the national day of prayer. The plaintiff parents have since removed their child from Lakeview Elementary School and are home-schooling their son.
 
The case was filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The Wilson County School System has filed its response to the suit. The ACLJ is preparing a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
 
"Our politically-correct nation has become hyper-sensitive to any public exercise of faith," said Crain. "The First Amendment never intended for religious activity to be closeted away in our houses of worship. We need to recognize that respecting diversity does not necessitate excluding religious expression from public life."
 
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is the nation's leading national public interest law firm defending religious liberty.  Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ specializes in constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C. The ACLJ is online at www.aclj.org. 

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