Diplomas And Disrespect: Public Schools Should Not Force Religion On Graduating Seniors
This summer, I will celebrate my 10-year high school reunion. In fact, just last week I received a Facebook message from our class president to “save the date” (which, as a side note, I doubt I will be “saving”).
But reading the message got me thinking. High school can be a tough place, but there definitely were some good times. And one of those times was putting on my cap and gown to celebrate finally getting out of there!
In seriousness, though, I was an emotional mess when I arrived at the convention center where our school held its graduation ceremonies. It was my “last day” with my friends, and it meant so much to us.
It meant a lot to my parents, too. I was their youngest child and soon would be leaving them with an empty nest. This ceremony and celebration was important.
That is why I couldn’t imagine having to receive my diploma in a church sanctuary or being required to listen to a Christian prayer before walking on stage.
I grew up Hindu in a very conservative town in Ohio. Much of my life, I felt like an “outsider.” I stood out, and I was very aware of it. Holding the ceremony in a church would have just exacerbated that feeling I had carried with me since kindergarten. Thankfully, my school recognized that.
I wish the same could be true for all public schools throughout the country. But each year, Americans United receives many complaints about public schools that choose not to remain religiously neutral, and in turn, violate the Constitution.
Today, in the Chillicothe Gazette, a senior who is Wiccan wrote a letter to the editor, expressing his fear that his high school graduation experience will be “tainted,” if the school does not change its policy of beginning and ending commencement with Christian prayers.
He writes, “I hold no animosities toward Christians; in fact, most of my best friends are followers of Christ. I feel that during graduation ceremonies when the entire crowd is asked to stand and join in prayer, if I remain seated I will be ridiculed for not standing and showing respect for someone else’s religion. I feel at the same time that if I do stand, then I am submitting to and accepting something that goes against what I believe.”
Jacob Davis goes on in his letter to cite a U.S. Supreme Court decision that explicitly banned coercive prayers at public school graduations. The high court said in Lee v. Weisman that “‘[e]veryone knows that in our society and in our culture high school graduation is one of life’s most significant occasions….[T]he Constitution forbids the State to exact religious conformity from a student as a price of attending her own high school graduation.”
Americans United filed a lawsuit last week in federal court to block a Wisconsin public school district from holding graduation ceremonies in the sanctuary of an evangelical church. AU is representing a graduating senior and several families in the district whose constitutional rights would be violated if the school fails to honor the separation of church and state.
The church where the graduation is to be held, Elmbrook Church, displays a large cross (15 to 20 feet tall, and seven to 10 feet wide) in its sanctuary. The cross would likely appear in any photo of a student receiving his or her diploma.
The school claims this is the only comfortable venue to hold the graduation, although in AU’s complaint, we list several other venues, including a local Convention Center that can easily seat even more people comfortably.
Schools that push religion at graduation have not only violated the Constitution, they have shown they care little about respecting the feelings of all students. Even if a majority of students don’t oppose holding a graduation ceremony in the church and support Christian prayers, schools are not permitted to forget the rights of the minority students.
After all, they earned that diploma just as much as anyone else.