On January 11, federal judge Ronald Lagueux declared a religious banner that addressed a prayer to "Our Heavenly Father" unconstitutional and ordered it to be removed. This is the outcome that 16-year-old atheist and activist Jessica Ahlquist, the plaintiff of the case, had been fighting for since July 2010, when she partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union to sue her school to take down the banner that had been hanging in the auditorium of Cranston High School West. We support Ahlquist's courage and conviction and agree with the judge's decision.
Since the decision, members of the Cranston school board have discussed the possibility of appealing the case. Mayor Allan Fung has argued that, for financial reasons, Cranston should not pursue an appeal. We agree that the city should not appeal the decision — not just for economic reasons, but for constitutional ones as well.
The case centers on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Applying this doctrine in the 1994 case of Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, Justice David Souter wrote that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion." That is, he interpreted the First Amendment to extend to the rights of nonbelievers.
Indeed, our society seems to quickly forget that our country was founded only on the grounds of religious freedom, not of religious principles. Utterly crucial to this religious freedom is the liberty of conscience and belief, ideals that informed the writings of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. The court has a clear precedent, in cases such as Lee v. Weisman and Engel v. Vitale, to prohibit any sort of prayer or religious benediction in schools because these practices unconstitutionally impose certain religious beliefs on members of the community.
Opponents of Judge Lagueux's decision argue that the banner was not harming anybody, calling it "historical" and "artistic." In fact, such banners — and other declarations of religious affiliation in public schools, like organized prayer — effectively tell students who identify as atheists or belong to different religions that they are a minority, that they don't fit in, that they are different. The state should not sponsor or permit any religious display that, in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens, says to "non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.'" This religious display was an impediment to the creation of a safe, productive learning environment for students like Ahlquist.
The public education system has an obligation to provide students with a fair, balanced and comprehensive education — and also an obligation to refrain from including personal biases or beliefs in any part of that process.
This separation of government and religion is the ideal upon which Rhode Island was founded. A year after Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 for speaking out against the strong relationship between church and state, he founded Rhode Island as a place where government would not dictate religious beliefs — a religious haven for those of all faiths. If he were here today, we firmly believe that he too would stand by Ahlquist and support the court's decision.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
