ACLU defends Floyd athletes over Ten Commandments

The ACLU of Virginia has come to the defense of a group of Christian athletes in Floyd County.

In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon, the civil liberties group said it had e-mailed the principal of Floyd Co. High School (FHS), and urged him to allow students to post their personal views, including copies of the Ten Commandments, on the lockers.

The e-mail comes one day after WSLS first reported that members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at FHS claims school leaders took down the copies of the Ten Commandments on their lockers.

School leaders would not confirm or deny the incident to WSLS. They would only state school policy that messages other than those such as 'happy birthday,' or 'go team,' were allowed to be posted on lockers without school administration permission.

The e-mail from ACLU of Virginia legal director Rebecca K. Glenberg drew a distinction between "school imposed religious expression," and "the personal religion expressions of students."  The ACLU distinguishes the situation at FHS, from the Ten Commandments controversy in the Giles County Schools system.

"Schools have the authority to ban all displays on school property," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis, in a news release. "But if a school allows students to post some kinds of personal messages on their lockers, it must also allow other kinds of messages, including those that have religious content The removal of the Ten Commandments from student lockers at Floyd County High School appears to violate the First Amendment rights of students by discriminating against religious expression," added Willis in the release.

"The Supreme Court recognizes the difference between school officials' imposing religious messages on students, which violates the establishment clause, and school officials allowing students to express their own views on religion in situations that are not school-organized or sponsored," said Glenberg in the release.

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Read the letter from the ACLU of Virginia to Floyd Co. High School below:

Via Electronic Mail

Barry Hollandsworth

Principal

Floyd County High School

721 Baker St SE

Floyd, VA 24091-2343

hollandsworthb@floyd.k12.va.us

Dear Mr. Hollandsworth:

We were concerned to hear that the administration of Floyd County High School had removed copies of the Ten Commandments from students' lockers. If the school is treating students' religious speech less favorably than other forms of speech, it may violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Based on news reports, it is our understanding that the "while approval is needed for flyers and announcements, . . . notes such as happy birthday and well wishes for sports games do not need approval." It is not clear whether this distinction applies only to material posted by students on other students' lockers, or if it also applies to material posted by students to their own lockers, as the Ten Commandments appear to have been. If the latter, it is difficult to imagine a legitimate basis for such a distinction.

It is important to understand that allowing students to express their religious views on their lockers is not the same as the school itself posting the Ten Commandments or other religious documents. As the Supreme Court has often explained, "there is a crucial difference between governmentspeech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and privatespeech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect." Bd. of Educ. of Westside Comm. Sch. v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990). When the school posts the Ten Commandments on the wall, it is violating the First Amendment by promoting religion. When the school allows students to post the Ten Commandments on their lockers, it is upholding students' First Amendment rights (as long as religious speech is not treated more favorably than other types of speech, such as political speech).

We therefore urge you to allow students to post their views on any topic - including religion - on their own lockers.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at (804) 644-8080.

Sincerely,

Rebecca K. Glenberg

Legal Director