On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Attorneys Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court on Behalf of Fla. Student Forced to Paint over Religious References in Mural
WASHINGTON--Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a Florida high school student who was forced to paint over religious words and symbols she had included on a school mural. Charging that school officials engaged in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment when they ordered Sharah Harris to paint over religious references in her mural, Institute attorneys have asked the court to review the case of Bannon v. School District of Palm Beach County. Institute attorneys asked the court to overturn a 2004 ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that educators at Boca Raton Community High School had the right to exercise greater editorial control, i.e. the censoring of religious speech, because the murals constituted school-sponsored speech. Institute attorneys point out that students were specifically instructed to express themselves freely on the murals, barring offensive or profane speech, thus creating a limited public forum for student expression. A copy of the Institute's brief is available here (PDF)."The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that personal religious speech like Sharah's mural is as protected as other types of speech, and I hope they will do so again," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Our public schools should be teaching students to value their First Amendment free speech rights, not teaching them that certain viewpoints--especially Christian viewpoints--are on a par with profane and offensive speech."
In late January and early February 2002, Boca Raton Community High School, a public high school in Palm Beach County, Florida, was undergoing renovations. In an effort to camouflage unsightly plywood panel barriers that had been placed around construction areas during construction, school administrators invited students to paint murals on these barriers as a beautification project. Students were to provide their own murals, and the only instructions given by school officials were that the murals not be profane or offensive and that the murals include the students' own expression. Students were not required to present their proposed murals for prior approval and were permitted to express themselves freely in their artwork. Sharah Harris, then a senior at the high school and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, decided to participate in the project, along with other members of the club. Sharah and other FCA members painted several murals with religious messages: one mural proclaimed, "Because He ♥ed, He Gave" and had a cross in the background; another asked, "Jesus has time for you; do you have time for Him?"; and a third read, "God Loves You. What Part of Thou Shalt Not Didn't You Understand? God." Shortly after the murals were painted, school officials pulled Sharah out of class and instructed her to paint over all religious symbols and language, replacing the references to God and Jesus with neutral pronouns such as "He" and "Him." Institute attorneys are challenging determinations by both the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that the mural project was not a public or limited public forum for expression and thus could be subject to the school's interest in avoiding disruption from religious debate and of disassociating from a religious viewpoint.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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