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Court Finds No Viewpoint Discrimination In Teacher's Actions On Jesus Poster

By Howard M. Friedman

In Peck v. Baldwinsville Central School District, (ND NY, Sept. 30, 2008), a New York federal district court concluded that a kindergarten teacher and a school principal did not engage in viewpoint discrimination when they displayed a student's poster on environmental issues only after folding a picture of Jesus on the poster under so that it was not visible. The court found that plaintiffs had not proven that the teacher would have treated a purely secular image that was non-responsive to a class assignment any differently. The posters were to display what students had learned from the environmental curriculum they had studied. The court also concluded that the teacher and principal had a legitimate pedagogical concern that if the poster were displayed in full, other parents might think that the school was teaching religion. The case was on remand to the court from the Second Circuit. (See prior posting.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 03, 2008 (boomark / email).