[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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