Can schools include sacred music in holiday programs?
“’Twas the nightmare before Christmas late last month for Michael Stratechuk of Maplewood, N.J., when a federal appeals court upheld a local school district policy barring religious music from school events during the holiday season.” So begins a recent blogpost by Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar at the Washington D.C.-based First Amendment Center, which is an operating program of the Freedom Forum. Haynes is referring to a Nov. 24 decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that public schools are not compelled by the Constitution to include religious music in holiday programs. Stratechuk, a father of two, had sued the South Orange-Maplewood School District, arguing that removing sacred music from holiday programs amounted to discrimination against Christianity which violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion. Haynes notes that religious songs in school events have been ruled constitutional by numerous courts–“as long as the program is educational
