The Supreme Court's decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District has reignited the debate over the place of religion in public schools.
While many fear the decision undermines the traditional separation of church and state in public education, Northeastern experts agree that K-12 schools need to do better at recognizing and honoring the identities of religious minority students.
As students in southern parts of the United States begin to return to classrooms for a new school year, some Jewish parents and educators are expressing growing concerns that their children will face increased pressure from teachers to participate in Christian prayer and celebrate Christian holidays. then says the decision of the Supreme Court Karen Reiss Medvedprofessor at Northeastern Graduate School of EducationSenior Assistant Dean of Affairs and Networking in the College of Professional Studies and special advisor to the dean at CPS on diversity, equity and inclusion.
On June 27, six of the Supreme Court's nine justices agreed that Joseph Kennedy, a former high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, was protected by the First Amendment when he repeatedly prayed in public at the 50-yard line after his team's games, and that the school district was wrong to discipline him after he refused to end the practice.
“While there have always been tensions between the separation of church and state and some public school practices in the US, often seen as the Christmas Dilemma, this year feels particularly vulnerable for many families as the Supreme Court decision is celebrated in some parts of the country as a license to celebrate and engage in public Christian prayer and practices,” says Medwed.
Jewish parents fear their children will experience more anti-Semitism and other forms of anti-Christian microaggressions, Medwed says, which negatively affects students, who need to feel safe and supported to thrive in school.
Seven out of 10 Americans identify as Christians. When Christianity is slowly being practiced by teachers or in school districts in places where it might not have been practiced before, it makes it harder to see the separation of church and state, Medwed says.
Nur Ali, an assistant professor at Northeastern's Graduate School of Education, a leading concentration in transformational school leadership, and the principal of a private, nonprofit Muslim school, Al-Hamra Academy, in Shrewsbury, Mass., says she saw the Supreme Court's decision as a selective license. for Christian teachers and students to practice their faith in schools as well. Ali believes that the decision did not take into account the pressure on people of other faiths or those who do not practice their religion and feelings.
“What it's done is it's widened the gap between those people who have privilege and those who don't,” Ali says. “It wouldn't be okay if it was a player kneeling to protest the oppression of black people. It wouldn't be okay if it was a Muslim player who went to a prayer after scoring a goal.”
The religious symbolism that is okay is the one normalized by the mainstream, Ali says, while Muslim American students across the country have to make very careful decisions about religious requirements, such as covering their heads.
Both Ali and Medwed agree that there is room for faith in schools that should better respect the religious practices of faiths other than Christianity.
“Our students are meant to be able to express their religious beliefs and be supported in their individual practices so that everyone can benefit from an equal free education,” says Medwed.
“We tried to separate anything religious and keep it sterile in an education system,” says Ali. “It's almost as representative of religious blindness as color blindness was.”
This approach diminishes the lived experience of diverse students in many ways and doesn't take into account their religious needs, Ali says, from food options available in cafeterias to different demographic groups in which holidays are recognized and celebrated in a school.
“What do you do with the religion that is an integral part of you? You basically have to work really hard to keep it out,” says Ali. “Always seeing yourself as the exception to the rule is hard work when you're five, six or seven years old.”
Ali believes that instead of being blind to religion, schools should try to recognize and understand different religions, honor and celebrate them.
All children should experience the freedom to practice their religion and feel empowered to do so, Medwed says. Her concern about the Supreme Court ruling is about students guessing their religious identity. Medwed hopes they can find the strength to speak up when a teacher at their school asks them to do something that makes them feel religiously inferior, either because it goes against their religion or because it makes them feel invisible in their religious identity , says Medwed.
Jewish students often have problems with wearing a kippah/yamaka in secular schools, Medwed says, or being refused a Christmas choir, and adults in positions of authority can make children feel isolated socially or academically to express their personal beliefs.
“To whom, supposedly, constitutionally does each of these students have a right and not accept an invitation to participate in a religious activity that does not align with your religious beliefs,” Medwed says.
Some communities prefer to keep their children in community-based kinship schools over public schools, Ali says.
“There are marginalized communities that are trying to create safe spaces for their children, where their children can learn about their identity and also be themselves without having to constantly explain that they should be doing in mainstream schools. say white”. Ali says.
“In my situation, our population is not just a minority and historically underrepresented. Our population has been demonized,” says Ali. “Our kids carry the brunt of 9/11, even though they're born a decade plus after it, so being in a public school can be very difficult at times.”
Ali, who has researched the American school and the experience of Muslim American students in public and non-public schools, says she sees the same patterns play out over and over again with students pretending not to be hungry for 30 days during the during the month of Ramadan or trying to figure out which teacher seems friendly enough to ask about his prayer.
She believes the solution to making every student feel welcome and visible is through conversation. Public schools must recognize that there are other students in the classroom who need accommodations for their religious needs.
“In the educational context, we all work in classrooms to get the best out of our students. What additional work do we need to do to be able to recognize, support and foster religious freedom not only for the religious majority, but also for the religious minorities among us?'' Ali says.
Educational researchers like them, Medwed says, can offer expertise and provide training and insights for K-12 leadership seeking to implement safeguards that will let students know that their freedoms are at the heart of the student experience in schools.
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