High School senior Sabrina Steffans is taking on Grand Island High School in New York for her parking space. The school said that graduating students could do their own designs for their parking spaces for a $50 fee so Steffans did a religious theme. However, Assistant Principals Adam Hernandez and Jaime Peld hit the brakes on the effort as unacceptable religious imagery in a public school.
They reportedly told Steffens, “if we had to approve your cross, we’d have to approve a satanic symbol and [we] wouldn’t want to attend a school like that.” They allegedly told her that she might get away with it if she “disguised” the cross as the letter “T.” So Steffans did that and resubmitted a design with “let your light shine” with a cross for the letter “T” in “light.” However, it still included a reference to the Bible’s Jeremiah 29:11.
That was also rejected. So Steffans resubmitted a new design without the Jeremiah reference, but included the phrase “He is King,” which eventually was approved by Principal Kretz-Harvey, who reportedly said that he made the decision after consulting with lawyers.
I do not believe that the earlier designs would violate the First Amendment under current Supreme Court precedent.
Steffans is now pushing back on the earlier denials. She is now represented by one of the nation’s leading religious rights groups, First Liberty. It has sent a notice letter to the school of a possible lawsuit.The letter warns:
“Any restrictions on expression for the parking space design activity must not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. But here, the school’s denial of Ms. Steffans’ designs containing references to Scripture constitutes viewpoint discrimination because it prohibits specific religious messages while permitting a wide variety of secular speech.”
It notes that the guidelines “prohibit only ‘offensive language, pictures or symbols,’ ‘negative or rude language, and ‘gang-style tagging.’”
First Liberty is citing violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and demanding a reversal of the original decision. I wonder what the school lawyers would rule if Stephanie painted the space with lyrics from Carrie Underwood’s song and the declaration “Jesus Take the [Space].”
We have previously discussed such decisions by schools, including banning vehicles with political statements.
First Liberty has a long history of prevailing in such fights and this could make for an interesting challenge.
In the end, Stephanie may have been better off choosing Jeremiah 6:16 rather than Jeremiah 29:11: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”