True North Legal attorneys have observed an increase in complaints from students facing religious discrimination at public schools.  In particular, we have seen an uptick in students claiming that public schools are preventing them from expressing messages concerning their faith in Jesus in various contexts. To protect privacy and the interests of our clients, True North Legal cannot talk publicly about everything we do to assist those who face religious discrimination, including students.  What follows is a general description of how we assisted one student whose First Amendment speech and religious rights were threatened at a public school in Minnesota.

One of the student’s teachers had made a space available in the classroom for students to post messages to one another and the class.  The posted messages included drawings, quotations, exhortations, and more.  When the student in question posted an evangelistic message about Jesus in that space, however, the school removed the message and instructed the student not to post any further such messages.  When the student persisted, the school threatened the student with discipline.

The school’s action was classic viewpoint discrimination.  The school had opened a forum for student expression. The school then prevented students from using that forum to express points of view that the school disfavored while allowing other viewpoints. The First Amendment does not allow the state to restrict expression in a public forum based on the viewpoints expressed.  In simpler terms, thanks to the First Amendment, the government may not punish someone for expressing an idea that the government doesn’t like. Were this not so, the government would be able to set up and police its own orthodoxy and direct public discourse—powers that are wholly incompatible with our representative republic.

True North Legal intervened on behalf of the student and sent a demand letter to the school detailing exactly how the school had infringed the student’s First Amendment rights.  In response, the school retracted its threat of discipline. The school confirmed that the student was free to post religious messages in any forum made available to students at the school, subject to the school’s reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on student postings.  

While victories like these may seem small, they are vitally important.  Government officials, including public-school teachers and administrators, must be called out whenever they try to prevent students from sharing their faith. Students cannot be forced to check their faith at the schoolhouse door.