WEST COVINA >> Parents of a first-grade student have filed a federal lawsuit alleging a local school district violated their son’s freedom of speech when it prohibited him from distributing a story about Jesus to his classmates before Christmas.
According to the lawsuit, Merced Elementary student Isaiah Martinez attempted to give his classmates candy canes with a message attached containing the so-called legend of the candy cane — a story that claims candy canes were invented to represent the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
When Isaiah’s teacher noticed the religious message, she wouldn’t let him give it out, telling him, “Jesus is not allowed in school,” according to the lawsuit.
West Covina Unified School District Superintendent Debra Kaplan said the district has not been served and so she cannot comment on the lawsuit. However, she said after Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is backing the lawsuit, filed an initial complaint in January, the district investigated the situation and concluded no state or federal laws were violated.
The complaint was also brought before the school board, which determined Martinez’s First Amendment rights had not been violated, Kaplan said.
“After reviewing the district’s policies, the board determined a student can distribute materials on campus before school, after school or during lunch. But it cannot be during instructional time. Isaiah was told this … but he never did bring them back to school to do that,” she said.
Board president Steve Cox said he is worried the district is getting caught in a larger legal battle.
“I am concerned that we are being set up as a test case for this organization, for their opportunity to use our school district as a basis for action before the Supreme Court,” Cox said.
Indeed, Advocates for Faith and Freedom hope the case will set a precedent in the Ninth Circuit, which includes the western United States, requiring school districts to establish policies that “do not show hostility toward religion.”
“People can look at cases like this and think that they are insignificant. Who cares about a little kid being able to hand out a candy cane to his classroom? But its cases like this that establish the legal precedent that protects the public when it comes to First Amendment issues,” said Advocates for Faith and Freedom attorney Robert Tyler, who is representing parents Alex and Myrna Martinez.
Tyler argues school districts must remain neutral when it comes to religion — they cannot prohibit a Christian world view while allowing students to express a secular world view.
According to the lawsuit, other students were permitted to hand out Christmas gifts.
How they were allowed to do so matters, according to Loyola Law School professor Aaron Caplan.
If the school allowed students to bring whatever gifts they wanted, then it would be improper for the school to place limitations on just one type of gift, he explained. But if the school restricted gifts or messaging as policy, then it has to be religiously neutral.
Kaplan said the district has taken steps to be neutral, while supporting students’ rights.
“It is a complicated issue and this has gone to federal courts and even they disagree with what is right and what is wrong,” Kaplan said, referring to various decisions on similar cases in other federal circuits. “The teacher didn’t do anything to hurt the child, she did everything to support the child and she has received all sorts of hate mail on this.”
The lawsuit doesn’t name the teacher, but along with the district, it names Merced principal Gordon Pfitzer and Cheryl Lesikar, director of K-12 instructional programs. It seeks an injunction against the district’s policies that the plaintiffs allege violate the constitution and $1 in damages.
“We have to ask for damages to keep the case alive. They are not going to ask for more than that. This is not about the money,” Tyler said.
Still, the district could be in for a long and costly legal battle. A similar case in Texas — known as the candy cane case — in which a student was prohibited from handing out candy cane pens that also had the Christian story of the confection’s history attached, has been making its way through the courts for a decade.
