For Immediate Release

April 24, 2002


CHICAGO – The Illinois Senate Education Committee today missed the opportunity to provide citizens with a critical civics lesson when it refused to add clarifying language to a bill purporting to authorize “student-initiated” prayer in the state’s public schools, according the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. Rejecting a reasoned proposal for an amendment, the Committee approved House Bill 4117 providing no guidance to public school officials in differentiating between constitutionally protected, private speech by students (including religious speech) and unconstitutional school-sponsored prayer. Without this guidance, the ACLU warned, school districts could face unnecessary, expensive litigation over sponsorship of prayer in public schools.



The flawed proposal now moves to the full Senate. The ACLU expressed concern that the legislation requires school administrators to refrain from controlling students’ private religious expression no matter how disruptive, distracting and inappropriate it may be during the school day. By giving this special protection only to religious expression, the ACLU believes the legislation violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Finally, House Bill 4117 would force students to listen to private religious expression that may conflict with their own family’s religious tradition.



House Bill 4117 operates from an erroneous presumption that simply because religious activity in school might be described as “student-initiated,” then no constitutional impediment exists to that activity in Illinois’ public schools – an assumption in direct conflict with a U.S. Supreme Court decision from June 2000. In that case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the Court made clear that regardless of whether religious activities in the school are labeled “student-initiated,” the determination of constitutionality in these instances is made on the facts of each case after evaluating, among other factors, whether there was any school or administrative sponsorship or encouragement of the religious activity.



“The bill approved today by the Senate committee incorrectly presumes that the Illinois General Assembly can label prayer in public schools as ‘student-initiated’ and – by that designation – remove any question about whether the activity is an unconstitutional state-endorsed, coercive prayer,” said Mary Dixon, Legislative Director for the ACLU of Illinois. “The United States Supreme Court ruled in June 2000 that simply calling religious activities in public school ‘student initiated’ does not determine its constitutionality. This legislation is certain only to further confusion, not religious expression.”



The Senate Education Committee today rejected an amendment providing clarity about religious activity in public schools that can be constitutionally protected. The putative amendment also contained detailed language making clear that public schools may not encourage, endorse or sponsor prayer, regardless of the label attached to it.



The ACLU of Illinois previously expressed a concern that House Bill 4117 misinterprets what is constitutionally protected, private speech and what is unconstitutional school sponsored prayer. Additionally, by singling out religious expression for special protection, the measure unconstitutionally favors religious speech over all other kinds of students’ private expression.



House Bill 4117 also invites students to engage in disruptive activity, since it seems to allow a student to “initiate” prayer at any time and in any school setting (an assembly, a classroom, etc.). The measure further suggests that school officials would be powerless to stop the disruption if caused by “student-initiated” prayer. School officials, however, clearly have a right to stop truly disruptive behavior regardless of the student’s motivation. Public school administrators cannot lawfully, or reasonably, give up the right to halt disruptive behavior because it is religious in nature.



The legislation additionally threatens to infringe upon the rights of students who are “captive audiences” in violation of their own free exercise rights. A student in a classroom or a mandatory assembly, who does not wish to listen to others’ religious exercises, ought not to have to make a choice between unwelcome exposure to others’ religious exercises and risking punishment by leaving the room. Students in this circumstance may feel coerced by exposure to religious messages contravening their own families’ faith, contrary to the family’s wishes.



“Parents ought to make decisions about when and where their children experience religious messages consistent with their faith tradition – not other students or school administrators,” added the ACLU’s Dixon. “Our public schools should be a place where students learn and experience tolerance, respect and equality – not a place where a majority can impose their religious views upon a minority.”



Finally, the ACLU of Illinois remains concerned that the vague language in House Bill 4117 might lead school administrators to believe that they must allow instances of unconstitutional school-endorsed prayer. In the 2000 Supreme Court ruling, a Texas public school district’s practice of allowing student-initiated prayer before football games was struck down as an unconstitutional sponsorship of prayer. The Court’s majority held that the district’s provision of student access to the public address system under the direction of school officials at school events in order to allow a “student-initiated” prayer amounted to school support of the religious activity – not simply the exercise of a student’s “private speech” rights.



The Court’s 2000 ruling – and other court decisions prohibiting governmental endorsement of prayer – has not restricted the ability of individual students to demonstrate their religious faith in public schools, despite claims to the contrary by some interest groups. A recent survey indicates that more than 10,000 Christian clubs meet in public schools all across the nation.



“The ACLU strongly supports the ability of individual students to be able to express religious beliefs, along with other personal views, in an appropriate fashion in our public schools,” added Dixon. “House Bill 4117 adds nothing to this process. Instead, the confused nature of this legislation will mean that that school districts across Illinois will now be entangled in lengthy, expensive litigation that distracts attention from their central mission – educating students.”