Posted: January 2nd, 2024

Write a 500-750-word essay in which you discuss: Any legal issues

You have a standard practice of displaying all student work in your classroom. Recently, you assigned students to write any essay and submit a pictorial depiction on the person they considered to be their hero. One of your students submitted an essay on Jesus and a drawing of the Last Supper.

Write a 500-750-word essay in which you discuss:

Any legal issues regarding the grading of your student’s essay and whether you could display the student’s work.
How does the First Amendment apply to this situation?
Include at least five references in your essay. At least three of the five references should cite U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

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First Amendment Analysis
The First Amendment protects freedom of religious expression in schools to a degree. However, schools also have a responsibility to remain religiously neutral as government entities (Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 2000). Displaying a student’s work praising Jesus could be seen as the school endorsing religion.
Some key considerations are whether similar religious works would be displayed, and if displaying the work was the result of religious neutral judging of the assignment or an attempt to promote religion. Courts give schools more leeway to limit student speech that could be perceived as school endorsement (Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 1988).
Given these complexities, the safest approach may be to discuss the issue privately with the student and their parents, explaining the school’s neutrality obligations while respecting the student’s beliefs. The school could offer to display a revised version of the work focusing more on the student’s heroism qualities and less on religious iconography.
Establishment Clause Issues
Public schools must avoid both endorsing and inhibiting religion to comply with the Establishment Clause. Displaying a work focused on religious figures like Jesus could promote religion in violation of this clause (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971). Courts use the Lemon test to evaluate Establishment Clause issues, considering if the government action has a secular purpose, doesn’t advance or inhibit religion, and doesn’t excessively entangle government with religion. Displaying the work in its current form would likely fail this test.
However, censorship of religious viewpoints could also inhibit free exercise of religion. The school must tread carefully to avoid violations of either clause. Discussing revisions respectfully recognizes both legal duties around neutrality and the student’s rights.
Supreme Court Precedents
Key Supreme Court rulings establishing these principles include Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe (2000), Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier (1988), and Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971).
In Santa Fe, the Court struck down student-led prayer before football games, finding it coercive and an endorsement of religion.
Hazelwood affirmed schools’ authority to regulate school-sponsored speech that could reasonably be perceived as endorsement.
And Lemon established the three-prong test for evaluating Establishment Clause issues that remains the governing standard.
Together, these rulings illustrate the complex balancing of free expression and religious neutrality required in public schools. An open discussion respecting both legal duties seems the most constructive approach.

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