UPDATE: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot sent a letter to Kountze ISD supporting the students' religious liberties. The full letter is below:
Dear Superintendent Weldon:
I write to offer my assistance and to provide advice about a menacing
and misleading letter you recently received from an organization called
the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). That organization has a
long history of attempting to bully school districts into adopting
restrictive religious speech policies that go well beyond what is
required by the United States Constitution. Consistent with that
history, the letter you received incorrectly claims that allowing
Kountze High School cheerleaders to display banners decorated with Bible
verses at football games amounts to a "serious and flagrant violation of
the First Amendment." That exaggerated claim is not supported by the
Constitution. Instead, it is based solely on FFRF's distorted,
anti-religion view of the First Amendment, a view that is unsupported by
court precedent and has recently been rejected by the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
It appears that your recent decision to prohibit the cheerleaders at
Kountze High from displaying their religious messages at football
games—a decision that has since been blocked by a court order—was based
on a mistaken belief that FFRF's letter correctly interprets the law.
Unfortunately, that mistaken belief was apparently reinforced by
erroneous advice from the Texas Association of School Boards. Contrary
to FFRF's claims, however, the Supreme Court has never held that it is
illegal for a public school to "host religious messages at school
athletic events." And the Supreme Court has never ruled that religion
must be "kept out" of public schools. Instead, each of the Supreme Court
cases cited in FFRF's letter involve decisions by public officials to
promote a religious message or to direct the content of a private
citizen's religious message.
Unlike the cases cited by FFRF, Kountze ISD has neither made the
decision to include a religious message on the cheerleaders' banner, nor
provided any direction as to the content of the cheerleaders' message.
Rather, news reports indicate that these decisions were made entirely by
students. Those same news reports also indicate that the banners were
made by the cheerleaders off of school property and without the use of
school funds. That these students chose to express their religious
viewpoint at a school function does not violate the Establishment Clause.
When the school district does not join in the students' religious
message or seek to control or direct that message, the cheerleaders'
decision to display their banners cannot constitute promotion or
imposition of religion by the school district. Rather, the banners are
the religious speech of individual students, which enjoys protection
under the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
In addition to the protections afforded by the First Amendment, Texas
law further protects students' free exercise of religion by requiring
school districts to "treat a student's voluntary expression of a
religious viewpoint . . . in the same manner the district treats a
student's voluntary expression of a secular or other viewpoint." Tex.
Educ. Code § 25.151. Moreover, a school district "may not discriminate
against the student based on a religious viewpoint expressed by the
student on an otherwise permissible subject." Id. To the extent the
district seeks to prevent the cheerleaders from displaying their banners
because the cheerleaders decided to express a religious—as opposed to a
secular—message, it may very well violate section 25.151 of the Texas
Education Code.
Think about it: Can a school district or the Freedom From Religion
Foundation stop a student from making the sign of the cross before
taking a test, or stop football players from pointing toward heaven
after scoring a touchdown or kneeling to pray for an injured teammate?
Of course not. Just like the cheerleaders' banners, such public displays
of religion are voluntary expressions of the students' beliefs and are
not attributable to the school district.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently vindicated these legal
principles—and rejected FFRF's restrictive view of the First
Amendment—in a case involving Medina Valley ISD in Castroville, Texas.
In May 2011, a group called Americans United for Separation of Church
and State filed a lawsuit against Medina Valley in an attempt to prevent
student speakers from praying as part of their speech at their
graduation ceremony. My office supported the school district by arguing
that the First Amendment does not require public schools to interfere
with students' right to freely express their religious beliefs. A
unanimous panel of three federal appeals judges ruled in favor of the
school district and permitted Medina Valley High School seniors to pray
at their graduation ceremony. The appeals court explained that there was
no showing that the "prayers or other remarks to be given by students at
graduation are, in fact, school-sponsored." The same is true here: The
cheerleaders are expressing their own beliefs, not those of the school
district. Just as Americans United for Separation of Church and State
was wrong in Castroville, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is wrong
in Kountze.
As the United States Supreme Court has observed, "[w]e are a religious
people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being." Zorach v.
Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952). And as the Fifth Circuit's Medina
Valley ruling demonstrates, school districts that allow students to
speak freely about their religious beliefs have the Constitution on
their side. A school district's policies regarding student expressions
of religious belief should be guided by the educational goals of the
district and an appropriate respect for students' freedoms of speech and
religion—not by threatening letters that misstate the law and distort
the First Amendment.
If you decide to allow the cheerleaders of Kountze High to freely
display their chosen message on their banners at football games, and if
the Freedom From Religion Foundation or any other group sues Kountze ISD
as a result, my office stands ready to file a brief with the court
protecting the cheerleaders' religious liberties.
Sincerely,
Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas
KOUNTZE, Texas (KHOU) — Students in the tiny Texas town of Kountze won a legal victory Thursday when a judge said they could continue to use religious signs at football games – at least for now.
State District Judge Steven Thomas granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Kountze ISD from imposing a ban on the religious signs at games and other school-sponsored events.
Attorney David Starnes filed court papers on behalf of Kountze ISD cheerleaders who believe they have the right to put Bible verses on run-through signs at football games.
The signs "weren't made on school time, weren't made using school funds and were done without any involvement of the school administration," Starnes told KFDM in Beaumont.
But someone mailed a complaint to the Kountze ISD superintendent. Kevin Weldon said he immediately contacted legal counsel and the Texas Association of School Boards, which advised him the practice should end immediately.
That decision didn't sit well with folks in Kountze where faith and football are as intertwined as much as anywhere else in Texas. They decided to fight back.
Religious signs and banners filled the stands at the Kountze Middle School football game against Silsbee on Thursday evening.
Many people in attendance applauded the judge's decision to grant the temporary restraining order.
"I'm sorry for people who might be offended," said Kori Bumstead, a middle school cheerleader. "But our boys are happy and we're just trying to win our games."
Others in the stands agreed.
"I believe their intentions were simply to support their team," said one woman whose son plays for the Kountze Middle School Lions.
But some people at the game thought the judge did the wrong thing.
"I don't go against showing your religion," said Gabriel Haga, a 14-year-old middle school student. "But I do go against people trying to force other people into religion."
Students and parents created a Facebook group page called "Support Kountze Kids Faith." Within 24 hours, more than 30,000 people signed up to join the site. The population of Kountze is only 2,115.
Judge Thomas set a temporary injunction hearing for October 4.
