Written by Don Byrd
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Kountze School Superintendent expressing his support for the practice of including Christian messages on cheerleader banners at high school football games. The banners are the subject of some come controversy after a judge lifted the superintendent’s order barring the messages after a church-state complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Abbott not indicates he will file a brief with the court in support of the Christian banners if FFRF proceeds with a lawsuit.
Here’s a snippet of his argument:
Unlike the cases cited by FFRF, Kountze ISD has neither made the decision to include a religious message on the cheerleaders’ banner, nor provided any direction as to the content of the cheerleaders’ message. Rather, news reports indicate that these decisions were made entirely by students. Those same news reports also indicate that the banners were made by the cheerleaders off of school property and without the use of school funds. That these students chose to express their religious viewpoint at a school function does not violate the Establishment Clause.
When the school district does not join in the students’ religious message or seek to control or direct that message, the cheerleaders’ decision to display their banners cannot constitute promotion or imposition of religion by the school district. Rather, the banners are the religious speech of individual students, which enjoys protection under the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
Do Christian-themed banners held by cheerleaders, associated with the emergence of the team onto the field, give the impression of an official endorsement of Christianity by the school? Separate from that legal question, is it good judgment to use a position of privilege on the field to promote one’s own faith at an event for the entire community, enjoyed by people of all faiths and of no faith?
