Mistletoe and Textbooks?
Religion Inside Public Schools
By Azi Paybarah

Public schools ponder how much of the season spirit to greet.

Can the wall that separates church and state be decorated with a paper snowflake? Or a jolly, red-nosed reindeer? That is the question parents and public school teachers find themselves asking when the holiday spirit comes knocking on the door of public school classrooms.

While trying to “make reasonable accommodations for students to be able to exercise their religious right,” schools have to avoid “unnecessary entanglement with religious activities,” according to regulations from School’s Chancellor Joel Klein.

According to those regulations, available online at http://www.nycenet.edu/ToolsResources/Default.htm, students can be excused from class for religious reasons with permission from a parent. Also, students can “pray on school property individually provided they are not disruptive or interfere with the orderly operation of the school.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) described the role of educators in this matter as having to “protect and reasonably accommodate religious freedom without promoting religion,” according to a Nov. 15, 2001 letter to then-School’s Chancellor Harold Levy. That, according to the NYCLU, prohibits schools from setting aside “prayer rooms.” The letter does not include an example of how school officials go about protecting religious freedom in schools.

“I cannot see how an ‘official religion’ is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it,” wrote Justice Potter Stewart in his lone dissent of the 1962 Supreme Court ruling, Engel vs. Vitale, which struck down school prayer in New York State.

According to a Biloxi, Miss.-based website, critics of the Engle vs. Vitale ruling misunderstand the difference between “voluntary prayer in public schools, which is protected by the First Amendment, and any act of the Government to compel people to pray, which is prohibited.”

In Queens, with its enormous ethnic and religious diversity, managing fair religious practices in public schools can often be a challenge.

Lately, the religion-in-school argument has become as specific as whether or not a Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, a snowflake or Menorah can be hung inside hallways and classrooms.

Teachers do their best to be fair, while also respecting the right to exercise one’s religion on a daily basis. But to play it safe, they often stick to the guidelines set forth.

“We take our cue from the administration,” said United Federation of Teachers’ spokesperson Ron Davis.

Question about these and other school regulations can be made to the individual school directly, or to the Office of Community School District Affairs, at (212) 374-5462.