    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [July 12, 1995]
    [Pages 1083-1086]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Memorandum on Religious Expression in Public Schools
    July 12, 1995

    Memorandum for the Secretary of Education, the Attorney General

    Subject: Religious Expression in Public Schools

        Religious freedom is perhaps the most precious of all American
    liberties--called by many our ``first freedom.'' Many of the first
    European settlers in North America sought refuge from religious
    persecution in their native countries. Since that time, people of faith
    and religious institutions have played a central role in the history of
    this Nation. In the First Amendment, our Bill of Rights recognizes the
    twin pillars of religious liberty: the constitutional protection for the
    free exercise of religion, and the constitutional prohibition on the
    establishment of religion by the state. Our Nation's founders knew that
    religion helps to give our people the character without which a
    democracy cannot survive. Our founders also recognized the need for a
    space of freedom between government and the people--that the government
    must not be permitted to coerce the conscience of any individual or
    group.
        In the over 200 years since the First Amendment was included in our
    Constitution, religion and religious institutions have thrived
    throughout the United States. In 1993, I was proud to reaffirm the
    historic place of religion when I signed the Religious Freedom
    Restoration Act, which restores a high legal standard to protect the
    exercise of religion from being inappropriately burdened by government
    action. In the greatest traditions of American citizenship, a broad
    coalition of individuals and organizations came together to support the
    fullest protection for religious practice and expression.

    Religious Expression in Public Schools

        I share the concern and frustration that many Americans feel about
    situations where the protections accorded by the First Amendment are not
    recognized or understood. This problem has manifested itself in our
    Nation's public schools. It appears that some school officials, teachers
    and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either
    inappropriate, or forbidden altogether, in public schools.
        As our courts have reaffirmed, however, nothing in the First
    Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones, or
    requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse
    door. While the government may not use schools to coerce the consciences
    of our students, or to convey official endorsement of religion, the
    government's schools also may not discriminate against private religious
    expression during the school day.
        I have been advised by the Department of Justice and the Department
    of Education that the First Amendment permits--and protects--a greater
    degree of religious expression in public schools than many Americans may
    now understand. The Departments of Justice and Education have advised me
    that, while application may depend upon specific factual contexts and
    will require careful consideration in particular cases, the following
    principles are among those that apply to religious expression in our
    schools:
          Student prayer and religious discussion: The Establishment Clause
            of the First Amendment does not prohibit purely private
            religious speech by students. Students therefore have the same
            right to engage in individual or group prayer and religious
            discussion during the school day as they do to engage in other
            comparable activity. For example, students may read their Bibles
            or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray before
            tests to the same extent they may engage in comparable non-
            disruptive activities. Local school authorities possess
            substantial discretion to impose rules of order and other
            pedagogical restrictions on student activities, but they may not
            structure or administer such rules to discriminate against
            religious activity or speech.

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            Generally, students may pray in a nondisruptive manner when not
            engaged in school activities or instruction, and subject to the
            rules that normally pertain in the applicable setting.
            Specifically, students in informal settings, such as cafeterias
            and hallways, may pray and discuss their religious views with
            each other, subject to the same rules of order as apply to other
            student activities and speech. Students may also speak to, and
            attempt to persuade, their peers about religious topics just as
            they do with regard to political topics. School officials,
            however, should intercede to stop student speech that
            constitutes harassment aimed at a student or a group of
            students.
            Students may also participate in before or after school events
            with religious content, such as ``see you at the flag pole''
            gatherings, on the same terms as they may participate in other
            noncurriculum activities on school premises. School officials
            may neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an
            event.
            The right to engage in voluntary prayer or religious discussion
            free from discrimination does not include the right to have a
            captive audience listen, or to compel other students to
            participate. Teachers and school administrators should ensure
            that no student is in any way coerced to participate in
            religious activity.
          Graduation prayer and baccalaureates: Under current Supreme Court
            decisions, school officials may not mandate or organize prayer
            at graduation, nor organize religious baccalaureate ceremonies.
            If a school generally opens its facilities to private groups, it
            must make its facilities available on the same terms to
            organizers of privately sponsored religious baccalaureate
            services. A school may not extend preferential treatment to
            baccalaureate ceremonies and may in some instances be obliged to
            disclaim official endorsement of such ceremonies.
          Official neutrality regarding religious activity: Teachers and
            school administrators, when acting in those capacities, are
            representatives of the state and are prohibited by the
            establishment clause from soliciting or encouraging religious
            activity, and from participating in such activity with students.
            Teachers and administrators also are prohibited from
            discouraging activity because of its religious content, and from
            soliciting or encouraging antireligious activity.
          Teaching about religion: Public schools may not provide religious
            instruction, but they may teach about religion, including the
            Bible or other scripture: the history of religion, comparative
            religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the
            role of religion in the history of the United States and other
            countries all are permissible public school subjects. Similarly,
            it is permissible to consider religious influences on art,
            music, literature, and social studies.
            Although public schools may teach about religious holidays,
            including their religious aspects, and may celebrate the secular
            aspects of holidays, schools may not observe holidays as
            religious events or promote such observance by students.
          Student assignments: Students may express their beliefs about
            religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and
            oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious
            content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work
            should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and
            relevance, and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns
            identified by the school.
          Religious literature: Students have a right to distribute
            religious literature to their schoolmates on the same terms as
            they are permitted to distribute other literature that is
            unrelated to school curriculum or activities. Schools may impose
            the same reasonable time, place, and manner or other
            constitutional restrictions on distribution of religious
            literature as they do on nonschool literature generally, but
            they may not single out religious literature for special
            regulation.
          Religious excusals: Subject to applicable State laws, schools
            enjoy substantial discretion to excuse individual students from
            lessons that are objectionable to the student or the students'
            parents on religious or other conscientious grounds. School
            officials may neither encourage nor discourage students from
            availing themselves of an excusal option. Under the Religious
            Freedom Restoration Act, if it is proved that particular lessons
            substantially burden a student's free exercise of religion and
            if the school cannot

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            prove a compelling interest in requiring attendance, the school
            would be legally required to excuse the student.
          Released time: Subject to applicable State laws, schools have the
            discretion to dismiss students to off-premises religious
            instruction, provided that schools do not encourage or
            discourage participation or penalize those who do not attend.
            Schools may not allow religious instruction by outsiders on
            school premises during the school day.
          Teaching values: Though schools must be neutral with respect to
            religion, they may play an active role with respect to teaching
            civic values and virtue, and the moral code that holds us
            together as a community. The fact that some of these values are
            held also by religions does not make it unlawful to teach them
            in school.
          Student garb: Students may display religious messages on items of
            clothing to the same extent that they are permitted to display
            other comparable messages. Religious messages may not be singled
            out for suppression, but rather are subject to the same rules as
            generally apply to comparable messages. When wearing particular
            attire, such as yarmulkes and head scarves, during the school
            day is part of students' religious practice, under the Religious
            Freedom Restoration Act schools generally may not prohibit the
            wearing of such items.
        I hereby direct the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the
    Attorney General, to use appropriate means to ensure that public school
    districts and school officials in the United States are informed, by the
    start of the coming school year, of the principles set forth above.

    The Equal Access Act

        The Equal Access Act is designed to ensure that, consistent with the
    First Amendment, student religious activities are accorded the same
    access to public school facilities as are student secular activities.
    Based on decisions of the Federal courts, as well as its interpretations
    of the Act, the Department of Justice has advised me of its position
    that the Act should be interpreted as providing, among other things,
    that:
          General provisions: Student religious groups at public secondary
            schools have the same right of access to school facilities as is
            enjoyed by other comparable student groups. Under the Equal
            Access Act, a school receiving Federal funds that allows one or
            more student noncurriculum-related clubs to meet on its premises
            during noninstructional time may not refuse access to student
            religious groups.
          Prayer services and worship exercises covered: A meeting, as
            defined and protected by the Equal Access Act, may include a
            prayer service, Bible reading, or other worship exercise.
          Equal access to means of publicizing meetings: A school receiving
            Federal funds must allow student groups meeting under the Act to
            use the school media--including the public address system, the
            school newspaper, and the school bulletin board--to announce
            their meetings on the same terms as other noncurriculum-related
            student groups are allowed to use the school media. Any policy
            concerning the use of school media must be applied to all
            noncurriculum-related student groups in a nondiscriminatory
            matter. Schools, however, may inform students that certain
            groups are not school sponsored.
          Lunch-time and recess covered: A school creates a limited open
            forum under the Equal Access Act, triggering equal access rights
            for religious groups, when it allows students to meet during
            their lunch periods or other noninstructional time during the
            school day, as well as when it allows students to meet before
            and after the school day.
        I hereby direct the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the
    Attorney General, to use appropriate means to ensure that public school
    districts and school officials in the United States are informed, by the
    start of the coming school year, of these interpretations of the Equal
    Access Act.

                                                          William J. Clinton

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