The Importance Of The First Amendment In Public Schools

The First Amendment defines and protects the religious rights of all individuals based on the establishment and the free-exercise clauses written into the U.S. Constitution. Public schools are presented with the unique challenge of trying to balance the religious freedoms students’ are entitled, while simultaneously maintaining a separation of Church and State. Schools must take proactive steps to ensure educators understand the legal requirements mandated by the First Amendment. By establishing clear policies and training workshops, schools can ensure teachers are knowledgeable in managing religious expression. Although, these steps provide important guidelines, they may still fall short of eliminating all debates or avoiding controversy among the diverse student population.
The First Amendment permits students to express their religious thoughts in a written essay for classroom assignments. It is unconstitutional for an educator to reject an assignment simply because on its religious nature. A …show more content…
In this case, students planned to wear armbands to school to protest their anti-war opinions of the United State’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict. The schools enacted a non-armband rule because they feared it would create a disturbance in the school. The Supreme Court ruled schools couldn’t censor a student’s rights to speech unless it causes a substantial interruption of school operations, infringed on the rights of others, or if was determined to be vulgar, profane, or obscene. (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). This precedent prevented public educational institutions from arbitrarily censoring a student’s Free Speech Clause rights under the First Amendment. However, it strengthens their authority to exclude artwork from public displays when the student fails to comply with these mandated