Education Law

A baptismal field trip

ABCNEWS.com reports today that a Kentucky high school football coach ?took nearly two dozen players on a field trip to an evangelist church service where nearly half the kids were baptized.? Apparently, the coach?s actions were supported by his school superintendent, Janet Meeks, who permitted the use of a public school bus and herself ?attended the service and witnessed the baptisms of her public school students.?  Superintendent Meeks apparently dismisses any constitutional or professional concerns here, because the students were voluntarily baptized and “[t]hey didn’t get anything for attending.?  Er, they did get baptized didn?t they?  Surely, the superintendent means they didn?t get anything else.

But, not everyone is taking the superintedent?s baptismal jaunt so lightly.  ?The mothers of one of the baptized boys has said publicly that she was upset to learn her son had been baptized without her consent on a trip sponsored by a public school employee.? 

?”Nobody should push their faith on anybody else,” Michelle Ammons told the Louisville Courier-Journal.” They have no right to take my son on a school bus across county lines to a church to be baptized.”? Ammons, who everyone admits was not told about the spiritual spree is now ?considering legal action,? claiming her son was brainwashed.

Meanwhile the school district appears to be splitting the kinds of legal hairs with the skill of a jurist barber, claiming the fact that  ?No permission slips were issued? proves the trip wasn?t ?a school-sponsored event.”

Not so fast says the ACLU.  ?Bill Sharp, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the trip seemed to violate the Supreme Court’s separation of church and state clause, especially since the coach likely discussed the trip with students during practices.? Sharp argues that the coach?s position of authority lent both an air of official endorsement if not coercion that crossed the church/state constitutional line.

Meeks who is still ?in her first year as superintendent? doesn?t seem to understand what the fuss is all about.  She expressed no concerns that the ritual which involved dunking the student fully in a large pool of water? might have been the kind of event that requires either parental notification or a permission slip.  The students ?acted like they had a great time,? she said. 

For its part, the Kentucky Department of Education, appears to agree with the superintendent that the event is no big deal.  The department?s spokesperson, Lisa Gross, said ?that while state law prohibits teachers or school employees from preaching or imposing their own beliefs in the classroom, Mooney’s field trip “is a little different,?? and that ?”adult-led religious activities” are only banned in a school setting.? In Kentucky, she states, ?There are no such provisions for extracurricular activities.?

BoardBuzz is speechless. Except for this:  A superintendent, even a first-year super, that doesn?t see a potential problem with the need for notifying a parent about any kind of outing, much less one involving the use of school property, school personnel and which potentially implicates church/state issues should probably revisit some of her educational leadership courses.  NOW!

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 09, 2009 (boomark / email).