Title: 
Headings: Religion’s Legal Place in the Schoolhouse
Religion’s Legal Place in the Schoolhouse
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Content: The U.S. Department of Education explains it this way in its 2003 guidelines, Religious Expression in Public Schools: “ Teachers and school administrators, when acting in those capacities, are representatives of the state and are prohibited by the Establishment Clause from soliciting or encouraging religious activity, and from participating in such activity with students. Teachers and administrators also are prohibited from discouraging activity because of its religious content, and from soliciting or encouraging anti-religious activity.” While the guidelines forbid public school teachers from engaging in religious activity in the classroom, they affirm the Establishment Clause does not mean that religion is strictly forbidden from public schools in all aspects. In Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court stated that the matter before it was “not a case in which the Ten Commandments are integrated into the school curriculum, where the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.” In other words, the Bible, Koran and other religious texts may be studied or otherwise used in public schools for their literary, poetic or historical aspects, but schools cannot teach that the religious tenets of these texts are true or false. In this regard, the guidelines state: “ Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach about religion, including the Bible or other scripture: the history of religion, comparative religion, the Bible (or other scripture) as literature and the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school subjects. Similarly, it is permissible to consider religious influences on art, music, literature and social studies.”