A public high school is holding a religious baccalaureate service. Is that legal?

It is a fundamental principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence that a public school may not advance, prefer or promote religion. Because it is generally understood that a baccalaureate service is a religious event, a public school may not be involved in the organization or execution of a baccalaureate in any way that would make an objective observer believe that the school is endorsing the event

It is impermissible for a school to financially support, organize, or have direct influence over a baccalaureate service. Below are a list of things to look for in a baccalaureate service that might cause an objective observer to believe that a school is sponsoring the event.

Read more: https://ffrf.org/faq/state-church/item/14024-school-involvement-in-baccalaureate-services

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Two parents are alleging that Lubbock-Cooper High School infringed on their student’s right of separation of church and state. 

It all started when a Christian organization came into the school during the lunch period and passed out flyers advertising a church youth group that meets after school. 

According to school policy, Lubbock Cooper High School is a closed campus and visitors are not permitted at lunches. The parents said they first spoke to the principal of the school who told them students were not allowed to have personal visitors but this organization was allowed. 

The parents then went to the superintendent after concerns of how and which organization were given permission to the school. The superintendent said he agreed with the parents in an e-mail and believes students should have a closed lunch and instructed principals as such. 

Since then though, the Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote to the superintendent of Lubbock Cooper ISD. This non-profit’s goal is to protect constitutional principles of separation of church and state, something they believe Lubbock- Cooper High School is in violation of. 

The two parents said they are afraid this issue will happen again and would back down if they believe staff at Lubbock-Cooper had the right training. The parent decided to stay anonymous to keep their daughter’s identity secret. 

“I’d really like to see a possible re-training of teachers to understand what is or isn’t allowed in the classroom and the lunchroom,” said the concerned parent. “I really feel like they need to respect the rights of parents and students and their religious beliefs. Parents need to be the ones having these conversation about religious beliefs and not the school district.”

EverythingLubbock.com reached out to Lubbock-Cooper ISD and they said in a statement: 

“To the knowledge of Lubbock-Cooper district administration, this matter has been resolved in a manner that addresses the concerns of the parent and aligns with school protocol. In a written message to Superintendent Keith Bryant, the concerned parent stated, “I really appreciate you rectifying this situation.

The district is unaware of any outstanding concern, but encourages any community stakeholder to come forward with any matter that may require resolution. Lubbock-Cooper ISD considers the educational process a partnership between school and community.

Lubbock-Cooper ISD complies fully with all federal and state laws and local board policy. The district’s main priorities are to keep all students safe, educate all students, and love all students. These priorities will not change.”

The concerned parent believes that quote was taken out of context.

Lubbock-Cooper ISD has one month to respond to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. If not, the organization will pursue other actions they see necessary. 

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By: Karen Michael

A former Lubbock pastor met with other pastors at Laura Bush Middle School last week to ask for their support for public education.

Charles Foster Johnson is the pastor of Bread Fellowship in Fort Worth, former pastor of Second Baptist Church in Lubbock and executive director of Pastors for Texas Children.

What is Pastors for Texas Children?

Lubbock-Cooper Superintendent Keith Bryant said the organization supports schools. He invited Johnson to come to Lubbock.

“It has nothing to do with proselytizing in the schools. It has nothing to do with going against private school or against home school or anything like that. But it’s generated as a group that works hard to support the local schools because we educate the vast, vast majority of children in the state of Texas,” Bryant said. “I don’t know that you could find a person in Texas advocating for our children more than Charles Johnson.”

Johnson emphasized that as a Baptist, he is not interested in involving government in the business of religion. Baptists were once persecuted, he said, and American founders James Madison and Thomas Jefferson built the nation on the principle of religious liberty.

Prayer can be held in public, Johnson said, noting that the meeting at Laura Bush MS started with a prayer.

“No educator in this school wants to promote their own denomination or doctrine,” he said. “So we don’t come in preaching and praying and doing, unless it’s voluntary. And children can, our high school students do, band together and do pray at the pole.”

Instead of coming into schools preaching, Johnson said, they can come in and help teachers, showing solidarity with them by volunteering to read with students, tutor, mentor or raise school supplies.

Johnson said there are 8,500 schools in Texas, and he said the Pew Charitable Trust says there are 45,000 churches in Texas.

“What if every single public school could be surrounded by four to five churches?” he asked.

Even at a school like Laura Bush MS, which Johnson acknowledged is in an affluent area, he said there are poor people who need help.

“That’s not always because the parents are irresponsible,” Johnson said. “One of the messages I’m trying to deliver throughout the state is, ‘Let’s quit shaming and blaming parents that sometimes are doing the best they can.’”

Trying to hold down two minimum-wage jobs while being a single parent is not easy, he said, and he noted that it’s “in vogue to criticize parents who aren’t engaged.”

He asked Edna Parr, principal of LBMS, if she had 100 percent engagement.

“No, sir,” she answered.

“Will you?” he asked.

“No,” Parr said.

But churches could help out, he said, by getting involved and even by helping to raise money for school supplies.

“Pastors, when you take up those school supplies, you’re doing the will of God,” he said.

The first time his church in Fort Worth brought school supplies to a school in their area that had 80 percent of children relying on free and reduced lunches, he said the principal cried and told him that a church had never helped them before.

Even students who grow up relying on free lunches can succeed and attend Ivy League schools, Johnson said — even undocumented students.

“It requires the education of all our children. John Adams said in 1785, ‘Let there be not one square mile without a school in it, not paid for by the generosity of a charitable individual, but by the public, for the public, at the public’s expense. Because education is absolutely necessary for a democracy to thrive,’” Johnson said.

In some countries, he said, only affluent children get an education. But he said that is not the case and has not been in America.

“We use God’s common-good money, given by taxpayers — by the way, a tax is not evil. Let me be the latest person to tell you that. A tax is God’s common-good money, the public is not evil, the government is not evil. I’m looking at it. Let me be the latest person to deliver that message. I’m looking at the government of Lubbock, TX. We cast our vote and elect our officials, last I checked. And we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And one of the things that we have determined together in this state is that we will educate all our children. And it goes like this in the Texas constitution, written in the 1880s, ‘Let a general diffusion of knowledge, being essential to the liberties and rights of the people, the legislature of this state shall make suitable provision for the operation and payments of public free schools.’ Public. Free. Schools. It’s only served us for 240 plus years. Let’s don’t cave in on it now,” Johnson said.

But he said there are some legislators in Austin who have gone “soft” on the notion of public schools as supported in the state constitution, and said they are the ones promoting private school vouchers, which he said is taking public taxes to subsidize the private education of affluent families.

“It’s never going to pass the good, conservative people of Texas, because there’s nothing conservative about it,” Johnson said.

When he first got involved with lobbying for public schools at the behest of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist Convention of Texas, he said he learned there is a concerted and well-funded attack on public schools “by some of the very people that put their hand on the Bible and swore before almighty God to uphold the Constitution of the state of Texas.”

He said he made little headway in talking to state legislators, some of whom had workers who told him to leave his information and leave their offices, until he introduced himself as a preacher. Then, he said, they were willing to listen to him.

Johnson also called out Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. In 2011, schools faced large cuts in state funding. Years later, Johnson said he was incensed when he heard Patrick say that 100 percent of those budget cuts were restored.

“Hold on, lieutenant governor. Hold on. I don’t know about you, but in Lubbock, Texas, 60 percent is not all,” Johnson said.

He called this a moral and spiritual problem.

“And it needs to stop. Right now,” Johnson said. “We started Pastors for Texas Children when that 60 percent lie was spoken all over.”

He said pastors can help by calling their senators and telling them to fund public school and to “get off this voucher kick, and quit listening to rich donors out of Wall Street that want to make commodities of our kids and markets of our classrooms.”

Johnson said pastors can also join Pastors for Texas Children, or even just get monthly updates on their progress. They also ask for prayers, and for pastors to call on other clergy in the community to get them involved.

Bryant said Lubbock-Cooper would welcome help from churches, but he said other school districts in the area need help just as much if not more. Many teachers are Godly, committed Christians, who look on their jobs as their ministries, even though they do not preach to children, he said.

“They’re not preaching to kids, they’re just loving kids,” he said.

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