Re: Student reprimanded for religious absences

[Susanna Peters]

The M-F schedule is likely an artifact of Sabbatarian habits (and could 
be viewed as evidence of preference/accomodation for a majority sect). 
Anyway, if strict scrutiny applies, would people agree that the state 
seems to be on shaky ground?  A student who for religious reasons had to 
miss school, for example, every friday (a whopping 36 days!), could 
argue that the state can accomplish its objective of providing a good 
education for her by simple cost free accomodations since she agrees 
(hypothetically) to do her school work early and is willing to take 
Friday tests on Thursday or Monday etc.  I guess I am wondering if there 
is some reason strict scrutiny should not apply. The school is not a 
prison, and if Yoder does not apply, then what does? Would a state RFRA 
would come into play at all?

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I am not altogether convinced that administrative convenience passes for 
truly neutral rules.
 
What is the source of the fiction that 180 days makes the appropriate 
length of school year.
 
Or that school must meet on only mondays through fridays.
 
Or that school during the fall-winter-spring (a farmlife artifact) is 
essential to any government purpose of significance.
 
Shake any of the premises for the traditionally scheduled public school 
calendar and you will find, I suspect, a devotion to tradition and 
history that is both slavish and not a hallmark of the history program 
of the schools.
 
Jim Henderson
Senior Counsel
ACLJ

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