Lower court decisions upholding a New Jersey school district's prohibition of gifts bearing religious messages is being appealed to the Supreme Court.
The mother of a student barred from distributing to classmates pencils with the imprint "Jesus loves the little children" and religious-themed candy canes is appealing two judgments that said Daniel Walz's freedom of expression and religion were not violated.
"To prohibit a student from handing out gifts of his choosing to his classmates simply because the school is afraid that a parent will mistakenly assume school participation is ludicrous," said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.
The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization supporting the family's appeal, argues the lower court decisions constitute a religious discrimination and violate the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
In August, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the judgment of a district court, which upheld the school's ban.
"His mother's stated purpose was to promote a religious message through the channel of a benign classroom activity. ... The school's restrictions on this expression were designed to prevent proselytizing speech that, if permitted, would be at cross-purposes with its educational goal and could appear to bear the school's seal of approval," stated the court in its judgment.
In April 1998, the pre-kindergarten student attending Egg Harbor Township Public Schools in New Jersey was prohibited from distributing the pencils to his classmates during a seasonal party before Easter.
The school superintendent said the district did not want children and their parents to think the school was endorsing the religious message.
Six months later, the township's board of education prohibited the promotion of religious beliefs and non-beliefs in the regular curriculum and in district-sponsored courses and activities.
For the Christmas-Hanukkah party organized the same year for Daniel's kindergarten class, the boy, now 11, was forbidden to distribute candy canes with a religious story attached.
The institute's attorneys have asked the court to determine whether a student's speech can be censored solely because it is religious.
"We are hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will see through the school officials' justifications and recognize their actions for what they are — religious discrimination," said Mr. Whitehead.