Earlier this month, Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center (MLLC) sent a demand letter to an elementary school in Holden, MA, for violating a first-grade student’s Constitutional rights.
On National Bring Your Bible to School Day, a Holden mother emailed her child’s teacher to inform them that her child would be participating in the event by bringing his Bible and Christmas storybooks to distribute to classmates.
That morning, before classes began, this student gave some of the storybooks to his friend, who willingly accepted them. However, a few minutes later, the teacher took these books out of the friend’s backpack, stating that the student could not share the books he brought because at their school, “We don’t do that.”
The student’s mother later received a voicemail and email from the assistant principal regarding the incident. The email stated, “We respect your family’s beliefs; however, we also need to ensure all students feel comfortable and included. The concern was that [the student] was handing out materials to other students. While students may bring personal items, including a Bible, for their own use, distributing them to peers is not allowed during the school day.”
The assistant principal sent a follow-up email, stating that the distribution of non-school material is not allowed – but they never cited any policy regarding the distribution of non-school materials by students, and we were unable to locate any such district policy.
Under both the First Amendment and Massachusetts state law, schools may not prevent a student from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of speech or expression, unless doing so would cause a material and substantial disruption to the school’s ability to fulfill its educational goals. The only disruption that occurred that day was this teacher’s direct violation of her student’s constitutional rights.
Further, schools cannot prohibit speech just because it is religious. Not only were this student’s rights to freedom of speech violated, but so was his freedom of religious expression.
We stated in our demand letter that the student would be coming back into school the next week with more Christian books to peacefully share with his classmates at recess. We made clear that if he faced any trouble, we were ready to take immediate action.
A few days later, in response to our letter, the Holden elementary school principal sent a school-wide email stating that Holden public schools will now allow the distribution of religious literature, “consistent with the legal requirements related to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.” The student and his brother both brought books into school and were able to share stories about faith with their classmates.
We are thankful for this positive result, not only for this Holden family, but for all of the families in Holden public schools whose constitutional rights will be further protected.
You can read our demand letter here:
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