You have a standard practice of displaying all student work in your classroom. Recently, you assigned students to write any word assignment and submit a pictorial depiction on the person they considered to be their hero. One of your students submitted a word assignment on Jesus and a drawing of the Last Supper.
Write a 500 word in which you discuss:
Any legal issues regarding the grading of your student’s word assignment and whether you could display the student’s work.
How does the First Amendment apply to this situation?
The First Amendment
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which includes the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, directly applies to this situation.
The Establishment Clause prohibits the government (and by extension, public schools) from establishing a religion. This means a school cannot promote or endorse a specific religion. In this case, if the teacher had assigned a project specifically on Jesus or the Last Supper, it could be seen as promoting Christianity, which would violate the Establishment Clause. However, the assignment was for students to write about their hero and a pictorial depiction of that person. The student's choice of Jesus as a hero was a private religious expression, not a school-sponsored one. Therefore, neither the grading nor the display of the work constitutes a violation.
Conversely, the Free Exercise Clause protects an individual's right to practice their religion freely. It would be a violation of the student's First Amendment rights if the teacher penalized the student for choosing a religious figure as their hero or refused to display their work while displaying other students' work on secular topics. The teacher's action of fairly grading and displaying the assignment is a correct and legally sound way to uphold both clauses of the First Amendment. It respects the student's right to religious expression while maintaining the school's neutrality on religious matters.
Sample Answer
Legal Issues and Displaying the Work
The grading of the student's word assignment on Jesus and the display of their drawing of the Last Supper likely present no legal issues, as long as the grading is based on established, secular academic criteria and the display is consistent with the school's policy of showcasing all student work. The core principle is that the teacher must grade the assignment based on the quality of the work—grammar, structure, evidence of understanding, and artistic merit—and not the religious content. As long as the student met all the non-religious requirements of the assignment, they should be graded fairly, just like any other student.
Similarly, displaying the student's work is legally permissible under the same rationale. The school has a policy of displaying all student work, which means it is a neutral and non-discriminatory practice. Displaying this particular work does not imply the school's endorsement of Christianity. Instead, it demonstrates the school's commitment to showcasing student expression and effort across a variety of topics, religious or otherwise. Legal precedents, particularly those related to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, generally permit private religious expression by students within a public school setting, provided that the expression is student-initiated and not school-sponsored.