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Court sides with 5-year-old after school
censors Jesus
School's suppression of kindergartner's
artwork may violate constitutional rights
Posted: October 20, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Officials
at a New York
state school may have violated the constitutional free-speech rights of a
kindergarten student who included an image of Jesus in his homework
assignment, according to an appeals court decision.
The
three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan remanded the
case back to a federal district court Monday for further consideration.
Antonio Peck, who attended Catherine McNamara Elementary
School in Baldwinsville,
N.Y., as a kindergarten student
during the 1999-2000 school year, included an image of Jesus and other
religious elements in a poster created in fulfillment of a homework
assignment on the environment.
The
student reportedly was expressing his belief that God was the only way to
save the environment.
School
officials rejected one version of the poster and then obscured a portion of
the second version when it was placed on display at an assembly, citing
concerns over its "religious" nature.
Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based public-interest
law firm, filed suit over the second poster.
"To
allow a kindergarten poster to be displayed for a few hours on a cafeteria
wall, along with 80 other student posters, is far from an establishment of
religion," said Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of
Liberty Counsel. "To censor the poster solely because some might
perceive a portion of it to be religious is an egregious violation of the
Constitution."
The
case was funded by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund from
1999-2003.
The
second version of the poster depicted a robed, praying figure of Jesus, a
church with a cross, people picking up trash for recycling, children holding
hands around a globe, clouds, trees, a squirrel and grass.
In its opinion, the 2nd
Circuit panel said the district court "overlooked evidence that, if
construed, in the light most favorable to Peck, suggested that Antonio's
poster was censored not because it was unresponsive to the assignment ... ,
but because it offered a religious perspective on the topic of how to save
the environment."
In 2000, the
federal trial court ruled the school had the right to censor the poster
because of "church and state" concerns. In March 2001, a unanimous
federal court of appeals reversed the decision and sent the case back to the
trial court.
Last
year, the same federal trial court again ruled for the school. Liberty
Counsel noted the 2nd Circuit joined the 9th and the 11th Circuits in holding
that viewpoint discrimination is forbidden, even in the public school
classroom context.
However,
the 1st and 10th Circuits hold that viewpoint discrimination in the public
school context is permissible, making it likely the Peck case will end up in
the Supreme Court.
Staver
said, "I'm elated with the decision. Now Antonio will have his day in
court. The school humiliated Antonio when the teacher folded his poster in
half so that the cutout drawing of Jesus could not be seen."
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