Tomah High School in Madison, WI a short 1 ½ hour drive away from our place has 2 award winning staff members.
Who are these winners? Art teacher Julie Millin and assistant principal Cale Jackson are the recipients. Why? They haven’t learned the law related to student rights yet.
The senior student in this case identified by the initials A.P. was told he could not include a cross and the words “John 3:16 A sign of love” in his drawing.
His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.
Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.
The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on the other students’ rights.
Of course, both Millen and Jackson informed the student, his stepfather and pastor that the cross infringed on the rights of other students.
Well, Jackson and Millen must have missed a few lessons in Social Studies and the law especially recent cases. They should review this issue and especially this issue.
What wins them the award is the concept of an art department’s policy somehow having power over the US Constitution. Had they paid attention in Social Studies class they would understand the progression. The top legal dog is the US Constitution, then case law, Federal laws, Dept. of Education regulations, then State laws, State Dept. of Public Instruction regulations, school district policies, then school policies as dictated by the Principal then the policy of the Art teacher.
To review, they should look at the 1st Amendment, Morse v. Frederick 2007, Tinker v. Des Moines 1969, and if they care about their federal funding they should take a hard look at the Dept. of Education Guidelines issued in 1995 and updated in 2003. In particular:
“Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions.”
Nowhere is the infringing on the rights of other students mentioned. If the other students do not like it, then that is just too bad. Don’t look. Yes, you can restrict artwork and other displays that support illegal activity but not religion. Tsk, tsk, where was the Social Studies teacher when they needed the teacher?
Oh yeah, the teacher was busy passionately pushing Buddhism and Hinduism. So much for the “separation of church and state” crowd, you can’t have it be selective especially with a Hindu deity on display in the hallway.
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