Education Commons^™

Despite the notion that First Amendment rights are established, valued, and respected in the United States, there continues to be confusion in public schools that leads to legal conflict over issues associated with freedoms of speech and expression, especially as they relate to religious issues. Navigating the religious rights of teachers and students can be a precarious undertaking, as administrators’ decisions regarding the expression of religious beliefs continue to be highlighted in the media and many times are resolved in the court system at great expense to school districts. The purpose of this paper is to clarify religious rights issues …