Freedom of Religion

Upon looking at the first article of the survey on Americans, I am astounded by the responses that were given. Question 1 asks what the specific rights were that are in the First Amendment. Although the statistics have improved over the past 13 years, they are still extremely low. For example, only 6% of the people that were surveyed knew that the First Amendment granted the Right to Petition. In my opinion, this is an extremely low number, especially because it is regarding the First Amendment, the most common Amendment in the Constitution. The right to Freedom of speech was the most commonly known right in the First Amendment, but this too only had a 61% rate of being identified. Another thing that surprises me is that the vast majority of people surveyed believed that student speakers should be allowed to offer a prayer at public school events. 75% agreed and 22% disagreed with this, an amount that I find to be really surprising and high.

            After reading the second article about religious liberty in public schools, I happen to strongly agree with many of the points that were raised. As a country, it is our goal to ensure that the principles of religious liberty are being sustained and that people or religions are not being taken advantage of. As people are beginning to believe in more and more religions, it is becoming more crucial that schools establish concrete rules regarding religious expressions, in an effort to be sure that no religion is receiving more benefits and opportunities than another. A common consensus among 24 religious associations is that public schools “must be places where religion and religious conviction are treated with fairness and respect. Public schools uphold the First Amendment when they protect the religious liberty rights of students of all faiths and none. Schools demonstrate fairness when they ensure that the curriculum includes study about religion, where appropriate, as an important part of a complete education.” I strongly agree with this statement because I agree that it is imperative that each religion is treated with respect and is treated as equals. If one religion is forbidden to practice during school, then all other religions should be forbidden as well. If all religions are treated equally, then there will be minimal conflict between different religions, creating a more peaceful society.

 The article that I read was titled “Schools Juggle Holidays in Effort to Respect Many Faiths.” This article was very interesting because it highlighted the issues that occur in school districts in which some holidays are given days off of school when others aren’t. This becomes a very tough area for school administrators to deal with because they have to basically decide which holiday is more important than another. While there are holidays that are generally given days off across the nation, there are many other holidays in other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism that aren’t granted as many days off as other religions, which can be thought of as being unfair towards those religions. In Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, the Court upheld the school district’s policy that stated, “It is accepted that no religious belief or nonbelief should be promoted by the school district or its employees, and none should be disparaged. Instead, the school district should encourage all students and staff members to appreciate and be tolerant of each other’s religious views.” In my opinion, this is the perfect policy for a school to establish. In order to ensure that there is no controversy amongst different religions, it is to the benefit of the school to simply take no religious belief and remain unbiased towards any religion. Lastly, another idea that was established in the article was the idea of “floating” or “choose your own holiday days.” These days allow for students to take their pick on which holidays they want to observe and what days they want to take off. By implementing this type of policy, it takes the pressure off of the school board as to which holidays should be declared as a day off. I specifically like this method because it gives students their own choice as to which holidays they are going to miss school for. While religion can become a very difficult issue to discuss because of the sensitivity that many people have on it, it is very important that no religion is favored or “advertised” in a public school setting. All religions are equal and should be treated as such.