Supreme Court rejects former Cheektowaga teacher's religious free speech appeal

[tenderfoot]

A former teacher's religious free speech suit against the Cheektowaga Central School District is over.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied Joelle Silver's petition appealing two lower court decisions that dismissed her suit over the removal of religious items from her classroom.

Silver, with the help of the American Freedom Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., accused district officials in the 2013 suit of violating her First Amendment rights and acting hostile toward her Christianity when they ordered her to take down posters with religious messages and other items from her classroom. Silver taught biology and anatomy at Cheektowaga High School.

The case began after a Cheektowaga student alerted the Freedom From Religion Foundation to a biblical poster and a drawing of three crosses in Silver’s classroom.

The foundation says the student also reported a guest speaker in Silver’s anatomy class who used Bible passages in his presentation. The group also claims Silver referred to Adam and Eve while talking about the human rib cage.

http://buffalonews.com/2017/07/15/supreme-court-rejects-religious-free-speech-appeal/

[Igel]

1. It's a bit over the edge.

I'd have expected it would go the other way if the items were centered on her desk and the personal space that many teachers have in their classrooms, esp. those with no other place to work.

That said, I've also worked in places that didn't so much allow a coffee cup or personal photograph on the desk, so who knows? The most personal item on your desk was your choice of paperclip holder or in box, and even those, if too non-standard, would be vanished.

[3catwoman3]

2. When my now 27 yr old son...

...took driver's ed, I was quite taken aback when I walked into the place and was "greeted" by a giant poster behind the front desk - a black-and-white drawing of Jesus wearing the crown of thorns. The business card holder was a little white ceramic dish sporting a cross. There was one others Christian item on the counter top, but I can no longer remember what it was. I commented to the owners that their religious faith was obviously important to them, and asked if students who believed otherwise were welcome at their school. "Of course," they replied, and seemed rather surprised at my question. Having that big poster being the first thing I saw didn't exactly feel very welcoming to me.

Just for the record, I am a contentedly agnostic UU.

[Hekate]

3. If she wants to proselytize with a big Jesus poster on the wall she can work in a Christian school

A private schol -- not a public school.