On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Files Federal Complaint Against School for Removing Bricks Bearing Crosses from School Walkway
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of several students and their parents whose free speech and religious rights were violated when bricks the parents had purchased were removed by a local high school because they bore the symbol of the cross.For several years, Parents Associated with the School (PAWS), a parent association at Potomac Falls High School in Potomac Falls, Va., has conducted a "Walkway of Fame" fundraising campaign to help student clubs and organizations raise funds for school fieldtrips. The campaign involves the sale of engraved bricks, which can be personalized with a limited amount of text and a small symbol selected from a list of icons, including the image of a cross. The bricks are then placed in the "Walkway of Fame" around the school's flagpole. In response to complaints by the parents of one student, school officials removed only the bricks that bore the cross symbol and replaced them with blank placeholders, allegedly in an attempt to avoid offending anyone. Several of the bricks that were removed had been in place for approximately a year. Charging that the school violated the First Amendment rights of the parents who purchased the bricks, The Rutherford Institute contacted the Loudoun County School District's legal counsel, demanding that school officials restore the bricks bearing the cross to their rightful place around the flagpole. However, the school's attorney responded that the school had the right to remove the bricks and would not replace them. The Rutherford Institute asserts that by inviting members of the public to purchase bricks and choose messages to be inscribed on them, Loudoun County school officials created a limited public forum. In demanding that the school restore the purchased and engraved bricks to their rightful place, attorneys referenced a Rutherford Institute case recently won before the U.S. Supreme Court; that case reaffirmed that public school officials may not impose restrictions based on the religious viewpoint of speech, whether or not the expression occurs in a limited public forum or a nonpublic forum.
"When school officials attempt to erase all religious belief from the public school arena for the sake of 'tolerance,' they are teaching children intolerance," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "These children will pay the price for this overreaction to what school officials consider 'offensive' conduct. Indeed, when they enter the real world and discover that it is a diverse place, they will have to learn to appreciate others' religious beliefs or they will be deemed intolerant themselves."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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