On The Front Lines
Federal Court Upholds Ban on Instrumental Performance of 'Ave Maria' at Graduation Ceremony; Rutherford Institute Plans to Appeal Case
SEATTLE, Wash.--A federal district court has dismissed a lawsuit over a school's decision to forbid a student woodwind ensemble's performance of the instrumental piece "Ave Maria" at a high school graduation ceremony. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute had filed suit against the Everett School District, charging that the school's actions violated student Kathryn Nurre's right to freedom of speech and to be free from hostility to religion.
In dismissing the case, the U.S. District Court in Seattle ruled that although music is considered a form of speech that can be protected, the school district was within its legal rights to control the content of any speech at the graduation ceremony in order "to keep religion out of graduation as a whole." Taking issue with the court's ruling that the school's actions did not violate Nurre's First Amendment rights, Institute attorneys plan to appeal the case.
"Despite what the district court said, this case is a perfect example of the extremes to which school officials will go in their efforts to sanitize our nation's public schools of anything even remotely related to religion," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Schools cannot ban performances and restrict students' right to free expression whenever those forms of expression might have some minimal connection to religion."
In 2006, members of the senior high woodwind ensemble at Henry M. Jackson High School in Snohomish County, Wash., elected to perform an instrumental arrangement of German composer Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria" at the school's graduation ceremonies in June 2006. School officials have traditionally allowed the senior members of the high school's top performing instrumental group, the woodwind ensemble, to choose a song from their repertoire to perform as a farewell during graduation ceremonies. Previous selections included "On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss," a popular composition based off the hymn "It is Well Within My Soul." Thus, having previously performed "Ave Maria" at a public concert, Kathryn Nurre and the other seniors in the wind ensemble unanimously chose to perform it again at their graduation ceremony on June 17, 2006.
The senior members proposed to perform Biebl's piece instrumentally; no lyrics or words would be sung or said, nor did the senior members intend that any lyrics would be printed in ceremony programs or otherwise distributed to members of the audience. However, despite the absence of lyrics, the superintendent of Everett School District No. 2 refused to allow the ensemble to perform "Ave Maria" at their graduation ceremony, allegedly because she believed the piece to be religious in nature. The ensemble was then instructed to select a piece for graduation that was entirely secular in nature. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed suit against the school district in June 2006 on behalf of Kathryn Nurre, a member of the high school woodwind ensemble.
