ACLU fright fest: previous legal settlement makes Tenn. school district needlessly jittery

ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. — Public school teachers cannot be banned from participating in private religious activities when acting in their private capacities, according to a letter the Alliance Defense Fund sent Monday to the Cheatham County School District.

ADF sent the letter after attorneys for the school district wrongly concluded that teachers must be barred from participating in a privately sponsored religious event because of a 2009 legal settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union. The ADF letter points out that the settlement cannot revoke any person’s constitutionally protected rights when they are not acting in their official capacities.

“Christian public school teachers acting in their private capacities do not lose their constitutionally protected right to free speech,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “Teachers are free to take part in community events. A teacher can certainly attend a church that meets on weekends in the school where he or she works, and that teacher would be free to talk about religion to students who attend that church. This situation is no different. If it was, teachers would have fewer constitutionally protected rights than other Americans.”

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at Sycamore High School in Pleasant View sponsored an event called “Fields of Faith,” a community-wide religious event held on the school’s athletic field on Oct. 19. FCA followed the same procedures open to other community groups to request use of the field. The organizers invited the community, including district teachers and staff, to attend and actively participate in the event.

The organizers also specifically invited Gwen White Owl, a teacher at Sycamore High School, to speak at the event. The organizers took precautions to ensure that all attendees would be aware that she was participating in her private capacity as a community member and not in her official capacity as a district employee. However, the district was informed by its legal counsel that, while teachers and staff may passively attend the event, they may not pray, speak, or otherwise actively participate in any manner. The district’s attorneys apparently feared violating a 2009 settlement agreement between the district and the ACLU; therefore, neither White Owl nor any other faculty members participated in the event.

The ADF letter explains that “District teachers and staff members have a constitutional right to participate in such private, religious events in their personal capacities without violating the Establishment Clause. Their right to do so cannot he abrogated by a settlement agreement to which the teachers, in their private capacities as citizens, are not parties.”

Kristin Fecteau, one of nearly 2,100 attorneys in the ADF alliance, also signed the ADF letter.

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.