[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 28 (Monday, July 17, 1995)]
[Pages 1227-1230]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 sur- 

[[Page 1228]]

vive. 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.
        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

[[Page 1229]]

      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 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

[[Page 1230]]

      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