The case involves an eight-year-old boy who wasn't allowed to hand out candy cane pens to classmates at the school's "winter party" because a poem about Jesus was attached.
The Morgan v. Plano Independent School District, also involves other students who attorneys say were denied their free speech rights and because their speech was religious in nature The other children include a little girl who got in trouble for handing out tickets after school to a religious play, and a class of kids who were forbidden from writing “Merry Christmas” on holiday cards to American troops serving overseas. On appeal, the government officials are arguing that elementary students are too young to have First Amendment rights.
Do children have First Amendment rights? I think they do. I believe that children have more understanding of what they say and do than adults typically give them credit for.
While I would never want public school to prescribe any one religion to my child, I also don't think it is right to prohibit a child from expressing their own beliefs. I encourage my son to explore all cultures and beliefs as a way to learn about the world he lives in. The world, and school, is made up of all types of people from all religions. How can children expect to grow up and learn to work in a global community where people may be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or atheist, if they don't experience and learn about those differences as children?Read/Post Comment
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