Wisconsin lawsuit filed over student’s religious art project
A student at Tomah High School in Madison has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference. The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw "demonic" images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional. “We hear so much today about tolerance,” said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. “But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message.” Tomah School District Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the district hadn't seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. According to the lawsuit, the student's art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words “John 3:16 A sign of peace” in his drawing. His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project. Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester. The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students' rights. Jackson told the boy, his stepfather and his pastor at a meeting a week later that religious expression could be legally censored in class assignments. Millin stated at the meeting the cross in the drawing also infringed on other students' rights. The boy received two detentions for tearing up the policy. The lawsuit also alleges school officials allow other religious items and artwork to be displayed on campus.
Source: Racine Journal Times, 3/31/08, By Todd Richmond (Associated Press)
[Editor’s Note: The legal complaint is below. Courts have evaluated such lawsuits differently. In January 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (KY, MI, OH, TN) ruled that a Michigan elementary school principal did not violate a student’s First Amendment free speech rights when she denied his request to sell candy canes containing religious messages as part of a school project. However, in 2005 the Second Circuit (CT, NY, VT) had ruled that if school officials censored a student’s poster solely because it offered a religious perspective on the topic of how to save the environment, a jury could find that the school engaged in impermissible viewpoint discrimination. These cases are summarized below.]
Complaint in A.P. v. Tomah Area Sch. Dist.
NSBA School Law pages on Curry v. Hensiner
NSBA School Law pages on Peck v. Baldwinsville