I go to a public high school and there is a religious (Christian) group in my school. They have worship at our flag each morning and have lunch hours dedicated to prayer in our school. My belief was that religion in public schools was not allowed. And if there is one for Christians shouldn’t they offer one to every religion? I thought thats why we had seperate schools for parents who wanted their kids to take religion in school. They also go around and hand out flyers to educate us about things like Christmas and Easter. My best friend is Jewish and I don’t think she appreciates the hand outs.
The legality of the situation depends on how much involvement the school has, and if they restrict any other religious clubs. Would your friend be allowed to start a Jewish club, and hand out flyers? My understanding is that if other clubs are allowed, there’s no legal problem as long as the school does not officially favor them.
Does the school provide support to the club, or merely tolerate its presence? For example, do they allow kids to copy the fliers on the school machines? Is there any pressure on students to participate in the prayers?
Not quite. Public schools are not allowed to endorse any particular religion. That doesn’t mean that the students can’t organize their own religion-oriented groups, which is most likely what is happening in this instance.
One of the teachers orginizes it and it is in the daily announcements. I brought it up in a discussion once when were to bring up any concerns we had in a class setting, and I asked about it and I got shut down by some Christians and told I was going to hell.
I don’t know exactly how much endorsing the school does of it. I will have to find out about it.
If there was a teacher present during this meeting and the teacher did nothing, tell the principal about it. Be prepared to write an accurate account of what the teacher and the principal said if you don’t get a positive result. This will come in handy when the local alternative paper writes a story about the incident. 
They also go around and hand out flyers to educate us about things like Christmas and Easter. My best friend is Jewish and I don’t think she appreciates the hand outs.
Your friend, then, is free to organize a Jewish club and hand out flyers about Hanukkah and throw away whatever flyers the Christians are handing out.
I’da read a Hanukkah flyer when I was in high school 
She also has the right to be free from religious harrassment in the first place.
Check **Parkerz[/]’ location.
What are the rules there?
DtC- one’s person’s advertisement is another person’s harassment.
I agree that shouting down a person is harassment; telling people they are going to hell can be harassment; distributing fliers & expressing religious beliefs are not harassment.
The fact that the Christian group has a teacher in charge is not necessarily school endoresement. Many schools require official student groups to have a faculty advisor.
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I don’t know how it is in Canada but in the United States there are religious clubs in public schools.
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The policy of any particular school in regards to student clubs can vary from city to city and state to state. One school might allow student clubs so long as they have a teacher for a sponser. Another might only allow clubs that are directly linked to a class of some sort. (French Club, Math Club, Jazz Band, etc.)
Why should they offer a club for everyone? Just because there’s a French club doesn’t mean there’s going to be a Summarian club.
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We have seperate schools because we don’t want the state to establish or endorse any particular religion. You can’t expect kids to attend public schools without being exposed to different ideas.
Part of living in a diverse society means being exposed to other ideas. So long as they’re not causing any other students difficulty I fail to see the problem. If they’re causing people to be late for class, causing some sort of commotion, or harassing people I could see that there might be a problem.
I didn’t like seeing all those MADD, Random Acts of Kindess, or D.A.R.E. posters when I was in school.
Marc
I believe the fairly firm rules are all based around opportunity. The administration itself is in no way responsible for creating a club based around every religion represented in the school. However, their guidelines must be consistent in allowing either all religious applications which meet every other criteria for club formation, or ban all religions (and probably atheism) from forming clubs. Its all about Equal Access to public property.
I’m not familiar with Canadian law…but this is certainly not the case in the states. Do you have a cite to support your assertion for public schools in Canada?
Parkerz you’re going to have to be more specific. If you’re in Ontario are in the public or catholic school board? I know that seems stupid but both have funding from the province and so have certain public obligations.
There is no specific rejection of religion in the BNA (in fact it stated that denominational schools would receive public funding) or Charter that I know of, though the public system is suppose to be heavily weighted to inclusiveness and tolerance.
What “religious” connotates often depends on one’s point of view. Shall we bar the prevailent Utilitarians from distributing their fliers because the Kantians disagree with them?
As long as there is no abuse or trampling on other freedoms, why should we hinder the First Ammendment’s allowance for freedom of speech?
When I was junior high school, the local professional football team was playing in the Super Bowl and my school organized a “pep rally” for the students, which was really a maditory assembly. While I happened to be a big fan of this team and really enjoyed getting exited about the upcoming game, surely there must have been some students who either hated football or perhaps even liked he other team. In retrospect, I think that this might have been a poor decision on the part of the school, though the intentions were probably good. In high schook, however, the “holiday” assembly was certainly inappropriate for a public school, and I think could be challenged legally. I was in the concert band and was forced into playing in the concert, though in silent protest I would fake the whole thing not playing a note. Deep down, I was hoping somebody would discover what I was doing so I could make a big deal out of it, but either nobody noticed, nobody cared, or my silence was appreciated. But I’m over that now. Of course, then there was the time that music director, who was not secretive about his devout Chritian convictions (and occasionally let a bit a anti-Semitism show…) did a biblical show for the annual musical which included the Last Supper, through the resurrection. This was entirely inappropriate, even beyond what he does annualy in the holiday assembly. For that particular show, I happened to be one of the two students on the stage crew that was doing that show, though we weren’t needed in the Second Act once the lights were turned on. So me and this other crew student were in the Tech Director’s office watching our favorite football team and the game got a bit exiting and we made a distrubance while rooting for our team. AFter the show ended, I’ll never forget the music director’s bright bright red face who demanded to know if we ruined the his musical on purpose, as we had apparently been making a bit of a loud whoop-de-doo during the crucification. At the time I felt bad, but the older I get, the more I wish that I DID do it on purpose. Anyway, I’ll spare you the rest of my stories form my days of old.
Is there a similar First Amendment protection, allowing for freedom of speech, in Canada? Also, is separation of church and state protected as it is in the US? It seems that these questions need to be answered to properly debate this.
Canadian dopers?
I’m in the US, not sure how different our rules are from Canada…
Religious groups are welcome to organize, as long as they are student-led. But officially recognized groups have to have a faculty sponser. That doesn’t mean the faculty person is leading the students in religion; usually it just means the person is committing to provide grown-up supervision when the club is meeting at school.
Such groups are free to organize because students have freedom of expression, and the right to practice their religion wherever they are.
However, the rules apply to all points of view and all religions equally. There shouldn’t be anything stopping you from forming a Young Atheists’ Club under the same policies, if you like. Just do it for the right reasons- because it’s a subject you care about, not to get on the nerves of the Christians.
Religion in public schools is certainly allowed. It would be outrageous to deny people the right to practice their religion at school. What isn’t allowed is a school enforcing a particular religious point of view.
I just wonder how the Christian students would feel if someone started a Scientology club and did the same things.
Considering they didn’t have any qualms about shouting down Parkerz, I think the ol’ hypocrisy would hit the fan pretty toot sweet…
rjung: How the Christian students would feel about that has absolutely nothing to do with its legality. The Scientoligists have the same rights as the Christians to start a school club.
FisherQueen stated the legality very well.
School systems in many parts of Canada (I’m not sure about the whole country) are based loosely on former denominational schools, and the rules on how religion interfoliates with government in general and the school system in particular differ greatly from what the U.S. has, based on the most common reading of the First Amendment (to the U.S. Constitution).
Strangely enough, Canadians don’t think that they’re governed by the U.S. Constitution and laws. I’ve never grasped quite why! 
" … and I got shut down by some Christians and told I was going to hell."
So they can then save you?
I would laugh if I didn’t find this so hypocritical of these “Christians.”