To 7-year-old Laura M. Greska, it made perfect sense to bring a book about Jesus Christ to her second-grade holiday show-and-tell. But her teacher barred her from reading aloud from ''The First Christmas,'' saying its religious content made it inappropriate.
Now, Greska's parents have sued the Leominster school system in a federal lawsuit that cites the religious rights of students. The lawsuit, filed yesterday in US District Court in Worcester, claims that school officials violated Greska's constitutional right to freedom of speech and religion.
''This is a troubling example of a school district that is clearly exhibiting hostility toward religion,'' said Vincent McCarthy, the Greskas' lawyer and senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a Virginia Beach-based law and education group founded in 1991 by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.
School officials are often unsure when religious material can enter the classroom, civil libertarians and religious rights groups agree, underscoring the lack of clear guidelines and knowledge of law that hampers some educators.
The US Constitution firmly separates church and state and prohibits school officials from endorsing any particular religion. But the First Amendment also allows students to talk about religion in schools, a position advocated not only by Christian groups such as the ACLJ, but organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
According to the lawsuit, Greska's teacher asked students to bring books to class about their Christmas traditions. After some students shared books about Santa Claus and other holiday customs, the teacher stopped Greska when she pulled out her book about Jesus.
''Laura was told she couldn't read from her book when it was her turn,'' McCarthy said. ''She became quite upset.''
Greska's parents complained to the principal, who told them students could ''share books about their Christmas traditions so long as those books were not religious,'' according to the suit.
The ACLJ wrote to the Leominster school district on Feb. 20, asking officials to reverse their decision and let Greska share ''The First Christmas'' with her classmates. The school system refused.
David Rodriquenz, business administrator for the Leominster schools, said he was unsure whether the original assignment had invited students to discuss their Christmas traditions specifically or the holidays in general - a distinction of great importance to civil liberties advocates.
''It's a problem if a teacher doesn't let one group speak,'' said John Roberts, executive director of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union. ''If all the kids are sharing, whether it's Judaism or Islam or Christianity, I don't see a problem.''
As long as members of all religions are given an equal chance to talk, Roberts said, the Civil Liberties Union would support the Greskas' position. He said some schools exhibit an ''overreaction'' against religious content, rather than a working knowledge of what is allowed under the law.
The state Department of Education has not set its own policy on religion in schools, spokeswoman Heidi Perlman said. Instead, it relies on a set of national guidelines developed in 1995 by a wide umbrella of religious and civil liberties groups which clearly state that students have the right to express their religious beliefs in class.
All the Leominster school officials named in the suit, including the teacher, Victoria Marama, Northwest Elementary School principal Diane Carreiro, and Superintendent Marilyn Fratturelly, were on vacation yesterday and could not be reached.
''The school system will deal with this in a very serious way,'' said Rodriquenz. ''This is not something to take lightly.''
ACLJ receives about 50 complaints a year from the Northeast, including states from Maryland to Maine, from schoolchildren forbidden from sharing Christian literature around Christmas time, McCarthy said.
Almost all those cases are settled before reaching court, McCarthy said, when school officials learn more about the law. He blamed the Leominster system's position on ''a lack of understanding of what the [constitution's] establishment clause prevents, which is the endorsement of religion.''
As for Laura Greska, by this Christmas, McCarthy expects that she will be able to talk about her Christian beliefs with classmates.
''Once they learn about the law, they usually settle,'' McCarthy said of school systems that ban religious Christmas literature. And if it goes before a judge or jury? ''We've never lost one,'' he said.