Schools Get Lessons in Religion

Public school teachers know that leading their students in prayer at school is off-limits.

But what about requiring Muslims to wear immodest gym clothes? Or holding birthday parties in class and sending Jehovah’s Witnesses out of the room? Or not allowing students to make up tests given on Yom Kippur?

With the help of the Anti-Defamation League and the United Jewish Appeal Federation, local parents and community members have formed a committee to promote religious tolerance in Ventura County schools.

The Public School Liaison Committee, which has recruited about 40 members, educates principals on how to maintain the separation between church and state. The coalition also investigates complaints of schools restricting students’ religious freedoms and works with teachers to ensure that they respect all students’ religious beliefs.

Modeled after a similar coalition in Orange County, the committee officially formed two years ago. But now, leaders are trying to recruit more parent liaisons to get involved in more schools. Primarily, liaisons are located on campuses in Ventura, Ojai, Camarillo and Oxnard.

“We want to let all teachers know that teaching about religion does have a place in public schools,” said Julie Saltoun, a local attorney and parent who heads the coalition. “But teaching or proselytizing a religion does not.”

The role of religion in Ventura County’s schools has been the subject of debate more than once. In 1994, three county school board members were elected with the backing of conservative Christian organizations. The next year, board members tried to ban representatives from AIDS Care and Planned Parenthood from speaking at teacher training workshops. Now, at least one member of the board wants to talk about teaching creationism in Ventura County schools, said county Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis.

Coalition supporters say there have also been numerous situations in classrooms across the county in which teachers have excluded students on the basis of their religion or have put students in awkward positions.

For example, Saltoun said her daughter’s kindergarten teacher organized a class trip to visit Santa Claus without considering the students who don’t celebrate Christmas.

Carrie Rothstein-Fisch recalled when her son Jonathan, who is Jewish, was invited, through his Ventura middle school, into a youth leadership program that turned out to be run by a Christian organization. During a field trip to Azusa Pacific University, program officials proselytized to the teens and presented them with Bibles, Rothstein-Fisch said.

Jonathan Rothstein-Fisch, 16, said he also remembers having to sing Christian songs during winter school performances. And he said he never received a perfect attendance award because he stayed home for religious holidays.

In another situation, a Christian club that was meeting after school on an elementary campus tried to recruit kids who were in day care at the same time, said Tamar Galatzan, attorney for the Anti-Defamation League.

Coalition leaders are training members to work with school administrators and increase awareness about religious diversity on campus. The liaisons, who are versed in the law, serve as a resource for parents, principals and teachers. They said their goal is to solve problems in the classroom before they spin out of control.

“Our goal is not anti-religious at all,” said Rothstein-Fisch. “It is to keep religion where it belongs--in the home and in the communities, not in the schools.”

Parents say it’s working. A few teachers have stopped celebrating holidays in the classroom. Other schools have initiated “peace days” to promote religious and racial tolerance.

And at one school, a policy was changed. Formerly, teachers released all students from class to buy Christmas presents for their parents at a PTA-run store. Most of the presents were Christian religious icons, such as Nativity scenes, Galatzan said. But after discussions with the parent liaison, the PTA decided to include different types of gifts the next year.

“These are only baby steps,” Saltoun said. “But they are baby steps that we believe are making a difference.”

The committee has drawn support from religious, school and political leaders around the county. Weis said he hopes the coalition will help educate teachers who may be advocating one religion over another.

“It’s not out of maliciousness,” Weis said at a recent open house for the committee. “It’s out of ignorance. There is just a lot of misinformation on what activities are and are not allowed at school.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, teachers are allowed to teach about religious holidays, but they cannot celebrate them in the classroom. They can use religious symbols as teaching aids, but not as decorations. They cannot lead prayers at assemblies, graduations or sports games. They cannot teach creationism as science.

Students, however, are allowed more freedom in terms of religious observance and activities. For example, students can engage in private prayer during the school day, as long as they do not disrupt their teachers and fellow classmates. Students can also start and lead religious clubs and can leave campus for approved religious activities. In some cases, they can also distribute religious material on school grounds.

One of the only restrictions on students came about recently, when the Supreme Court decided that students could not deliver religious messages or lead their fellow students in prayer during school events.

Most questions about religion’s place in the schools cannot be answered by the law, Galatzan said. So it is the job of the liaisons, she said, to help teachers include all students and be sensitive to their beliefs.

“For the most part, if there were a right or wrong answer, everybody would know it,” she said. “Almost everything we have dealt with is in the gray area.”

FYI

For more information about the Public School Liaison Committee, call the United Jewish Appeal Federation at 647-7800.