Religious Freedom in Schools

Religious Freedom in Schools

Jeremiah, age 16

Religious freedom is a very controversial thing. On the one hand, it is important to preserve, to make sure everyone can worship what and how they want. On the other, it shouldn’t be mandated what religion one must belong to, or what religions are and aren’t allowed to do. The other big dilemma is the fact that while the government definitely needs to protect the religious freedom of the people, it shouldn’t take too big of a role, especially the broader focus it has (federal versus county governments, for example).

One of the biggest places this problem is found is in the education system. It is tricky to keep religion in the schools, without making people feel like they are being forced to learn and agree with a specific view. However, the country as a whole has taken this too far and completely removed any and all religion from all public schools.

Ohio has taken a positive step in this direction though. Their House of Representatives just passed a bill onto the Senate that would require schools to “give student religious groups the same access to school facilities for meetings and events as secular groups have, lift bans limiting student expression of religion to lunch or non-instructional periods, [and] abolish any restrictions on students from engaging in religious expression in completion of homework, artwork or other assignments” (Cath Candisky, 2019). In most respects this is a positive move forward to religion being brought back into the school system, and as equally as possible. The main problem that currently exists is the fact that in the name of religious freedom, and in order to avoid stepping on people’s toes, religion has been basically removed from public schools, to keep everyone happy. However, the problem arises that in doing this all religious influence has been taken out, resulting in more atheism and such, and actually bringing in religious boundaries. In short, religious freedom is being taken away in the name of giving it.

The main problem with the bill being worked on in Ohio is the fact that many believe religious freedom should be regulated by as low of government as possible. For example, many people would rather let the school board make rules about religion instead of the state legislature, to “keep the government from interfering” or something. However, just because the federal government shouldn’t have charge over religion, doesn’t mean that states shouldn’t. States actually have a lot less to worry about and take care of, and are actually a lot closer to the people than the federal government, even though in many legal chains they’re second. In the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, it is stated that: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” So it basically says that anything the Federal government doesn’t have power over or isn’t prohibited to the states, is theirs to make decisions on. Like religion in schools. So despite the public opinion, the bill in Ohio is Constitutional, and in my personal opinion, a great change to the way religion is viewed.

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