High school students examine the clash of religious rights with other rights, laws
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cherilyn Crowe (202) 544-4226 / [email protected]
WASHINGTON – An essay examining the conflict between religious dress requirements and public laws is the winner of the 2011 Religious Liberty Essay Scholarship Contest, sponsored by the Religious Liberty Council of the Baptist Joint Committee.
This year’s essay topic asked students to examine what happens when religious rights clash with other rights or laws in the United States and to explain how they would determine an appropriate outcome. More than 370 high school juniors and seniors from 43 states submitted entries.
The grand prize winner is Kira Alia Cozzolino from Lomita, Calif. Her essay explored the conflict that arises between the religious requirements of Sikhs to wear a small knife (called a “kirpan”) and laws prohibiting weapons in some public places.
Cozzolino wrote, “In the cases of kirpans at school, banning kirpans forces children to choose between breaking a fundamental tenet of their religion and risking expulsion. On the other hand, one of the main duties of schools is to ensure the safety of their students.” She made the case for a solution that takes the specific circumstances into account, restricting kirpans to the types that are risk-free in school environments and a discreetly-worn kirpan in work environments. “Education seems the best response to the dilemma of how to deal with a religious symbol which carries a different, or misunderstood meaning to outsiders,” wrote Cozzolino. She advocated for a reasonable compromise, “in which both sides understand the needs of the other – both the need for the expression of one’s religious faith, and the need for a society in which every person abides by the law.”
Cozzolino will receive a $1,000 scholarship and a trip to Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Baptist Joint Committee board meeting in October. The daughter of Michael and Karin Cozzolino, she is a 2011 graduate of the California Academy of Mathematics and Science and will attend Northwestern University this fall.
Morgan Green of Greenville, N.C., earned the second place prize of a $500 scholarship. A 2011 graduate of J.H. Rose High School, she is the daughter of Mark and Kathy Green and a member of Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church. Drawing on her own experience as a public high school student, Green’s essay looked at conflicts between the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment in relation to the teaching of evolution and creationism in the classroom and having a “moment of silence” at the beginning of the school day. She wrote that a group of students meets at the flagpole to pray before school begins, and sometimes she chooses to join them. “It is this choice that truly represents freedom of religion, the way I believe the founding fathers meant it to be implemented.” She concluded, “Our Constitution may be challenged, but it will not be changed. The best resolutions will be those that preserve the integrity of the rights and freedoms that are the roots upon which this country grows.”
The third place winner is Ashby Jong Henningsen of Parkville, Md., who will receive a $100 scholarship. A rising senior at Baltimore Lutheran School, he is the son of Alan and Nanci Henningsen and a member of Aisquith Presbyterian Church. Henningsen’s essay examined the struggle over religious freedom in public schools. He concluded, “In order for the decrees of the Constitution to be honored, religion must remain a separate entity in the public educational environment, upheld as an individual’s personal choice while being both protected and untouched by government. The only way for religion and public education to coexist is to remain definitive and separate at once – never opposing the other, but never merging either.”
The Religious Liberty Essay Scholarship Contest was established in 2006 to engage high school juniors and seniors in church-state issues. A panel of judges issued scores based on the content of each essay and the author’s writing skills.
For more information on the Baptist Joint Committee, visit www.BJConline.org.
-30-
The Baptist Joint Committee is a 75-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based religious liberty organization that works to defend and extend God-given religious liberty for all, bringing a uniquely Baptist witness to the principle that religion must be freely exercised, neither advanced nor inhibited by government.
