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Religion in Norfolk Classrooms
By Jim Berlstein, Norfolk
I presented a letter to the Norfolk School Board on January 9 (see below) instructing them that the celebrations of Christmas in my son's public school class were offensive and illegal, and had to stop. Copies of this letter are now being distributed widely around town. (This was not my intention; I had hoped that by presenting my concerns directly to the School Board, the matter could be addressed without calling great public attention to it.) Unfortunately, a segment of the community seems to be opposed to the idea of making the school into a comfortable place for students of all religions.
The upcoming School Board meeting at 7 p.m. on February 13 at the Botelle School in Norfolk promises to be very exciting! Following is the infamous letter that I presented to the School Board last month.
To the Botelle School Board and Superintendent Condon:
Let me get your attention—the first step you need to take to avoid facing a religious discrimination lawsuit is to read this letter through to the end. Now that I have your attention, I will go to the beginning of the story.
My son is in the preschool program at the Botelle School. In early December, he came home with a "Countdown to Christmas" art project. He was very excited about this. We explained to him that we do not celebrate Christmas, and that Christmas is a holiday celebrated by Christians, but not by our family. My wife and my son made a "Countdown to Hanukkah" project, and we put the other project aside.
Next, his teacher sent home a letter asking all the children to bring in their Christmas stockings, and 19 stocking stuffers. She had erected a pretend hearth in the classroom, and wanted all the children to hang their Christmas stockings on it, and receive a stocking full of Christmas treats on the day before vacation.
My wife called the preschool teacher and complained. She was told that basically it was not possible to please all the parents, so the teacher was not going to try to do that. However, she did offer to deal with the Christmas tree art project that was coming up by not letting my son do it. My wife called the principal of the school. He told her that "Christmas is a secular holiday, and she was just going to have to get used to it."
We decided not to punish my son by refusing to let him participate in the class celebration of Christmas, so we made a stocking covered in Jewish stars, and sent in dreidels and Hanukkah gelt as stocking stuffers, and made the best of it.
Finally, when the stocking came home, the teacher herself sent home a bag of "Magic Reindeer Food" and told my son that he should spread it on the lawn so that Rudolph could find his house and then Santa would bring him lots of presents! He was very excited about this. We had to remind him many times that Santa Claus does not exist; it’s just a game that Christian parents play with their children. We also had to tell him that we were sorry his teacher had lied to him, and that it was wrong, and she should not have done that.
The school has a legal and ethical obligation to provide an environment that is a healthy and happy place for children of all religions. My son’s teacher is clearly unwilling or unable to meet her ethical and legal obligations in this regard. She needs some guidance. Normally, this guidance would come from the principal. However, in this case, the principal is also unwilling or unable to meet his obligations, so he will need some guidance as well. This guidance will have to come from the superintendent or the school board.
Many of these activities could be acceptable with minor changes. For example, the "Countdown to Christmas" activity could have had a "Countdown to Hanukkah" option for the Jewish families, and a "Countdown to New Year" option for those parents who prefer a purely secular project. Likewise, the "Christmas Tree" project could have had a "Menorah" and a "Snowman" option. The celebrations and indoctrinations into the traditions of Christmas, such as the stocking event and the "Magic Reindeer Food," must never occur again. If events of this kind ever occur in any of my children’s classes again, I will assume that the teacher involved has not been given the required guidance, and I will be forced to file a religious discrimination lawsuit to rectify the situation. There is no animosity involved—it is simply my responsibility as a parent to prevent the school from illegally indoctrinating my children into the traditions of a religion that is not their own.
This letter to the Botelle School Board and the Superintendent of the school district will be as far as I need to go if the response is appropriate and designed to prevent the illegal sanctioning of one religion over another from reoccurring. If you can come up with written guidelines for distribution to the staff and administration of the Botelle School concerning what is appropriate and inappropriate regarding religious holiday celebrations and indoctrination in the classroom, that are acceptable to me, by June 15, I will not need to take this any further. If not, I will pursue other options at that time.
Change is certainly going to come one way or another. It will be significantly easier and less expensive for you if you initiate these changes of your own free will. If I am required to force these changes on you through litigation, it will be far less pleasant for you.
I recommend that you engage in some consultations with other school districts that also do not have a 100% Christian student body, and find out what their guidelines are regarding religious holidays in the classroom.
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