Where's the part where the Christians have been denied the right to pray?
Do these count?
a. Six-year-old Zachary Hood was happy at this chance to be recognized for his good reading performance. He and the other students in the first-grade class at Haines School in Medford, New Jersey, would be allowed to read a story to their classmates. Zachary initially selected Dr. Suess's The Cat in the Hat, but decided that it was too long and picked a story about Jacob and Esau from The Beginner's Bible instead. Â… Unfortunately teacher Grace Oliva decided the story was inappropriate, since it has based on the Bible. She would not allow Zachary to read it to the students.
Liberty | A Magazine of Religious Freedom
b. A teacher's aide in Indiana County filed a federal civil rights lawsuit yesterday against her employer, saying she was unfairly suspended from her job for a year without pay for refusing to remove a small cross she wears on a necklace.
Suspended teacher's aide sues employer over wearing cross on necklace
c. “A Lewis-Palmer High School student who was told she must apologize for mentioning Jesus in a valedictorian speech or not receive a diploma…”
Monument teen appeals over Jesus graduation speech - The Denver Post
No, they don’t ‘count.’
The first example concerns what appears to be a decision made by the teacher alone, we donÂ’t know if she was acting in accordance with sanctioned school policy because the link provided doesnÂ’t lead to the cited passage.
And as we see in the third example below, schools are authorized to restrict school-sponsored speech, regardless its content.
The second example is clearly not applicable because it doesnÂ’t concern a student. And itÂ’s settled Establishment Clause jurisprudence that school employees may not promote religion.
And the third example fails, as already noted, because schools are allowed to restrict sponsored speech.
From the link provided:
Corder is seeking a declaration that the school violated her First Amendment rights and an injunction against the school preventing similar acts, said Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, which filed a federal suit against the school district in 2007.
A judge summarily dismissed her suit, finding that the district can limit what students say in a school setting, said Robin Adair, spokeswoman for the Lewis-Palmer School District.
"School sponsored speech has restrictions," Adair said. "That's what the judge upheld when he dismissed the suit."
The issue had nothing to do with religion per se, but the student taking it upon herself to change the text of the speech without the schoolÂ’s approval.