School Prayer and Discrimination: The Civil Rights of Religious Minorities and DissentersIn this provocative work, Frank S. Ravitch redirects the heated debate over prayer in the public schools. He asserts that current legal discourse, which centers this controversial issue around First Amendment rights, underestimates the ways in which school prayer fosters discrimination against religious minorities and dissenters. Arguing that traditional Constitutional doctrine is inadequate to address the harmful effects of public school religious exercises, Ravitch looks to civil rights principles and anti-discrimination laws for an alternative approach. The author confronts the discrimination issue head-on, citing recent dramatic incidents of intimidation, harassment, and physical violence toward both religious minorities and those who oppose religious observances in the schools. He examines the legal, political, and social realities that create such occurrences, concluding that discrimination is likely to become more widespread, particularly as the religious right aggressively promotes the expansion of organized religious exercises in schools. Following a survey of current civil rights statutes and their limitations in dealing with this issue, Ravitch presents a draft of a statute that directly confronts this form of discrimination. This timely work offers fresh insights into the school prayer debate and it makes a strong case for viewing this controversial issue from a new perspective. |
Contents
From Riots to Harassment | 3 |
The Christian Right and the Public Schools | 19 |
The Current Legal Status of Public School Religious | 44 |
The Social Context | 74 |
Where Do We Go from Here? | 88 |
The Utility of Antidiscrimination Law | 103 |
The Limitations of Using the Constitution | 128 |
A Model for Protecting Religious Minorities | 144 |
The Proposed Statute and the Free Speech and Free | 176 |
Can Existing Law Help? | 192 |
Somebody Make It Stop | 206 |
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Common terms and phrases
ACLJ Amendment antidiscrimination law applied Bauchman Bell bible Black Horse Pike cause of action Ceremonial Deism Christian Coalition Christian Right constitutional violation context Court held demonstrates discrimination facilitated discussed in Chapter disparate impact Ellerth employees engage environment claims Equal Access Act Establishment Clause F.Supp facilitate discrimination facilitated by public fact focus Free Exercise free speech rights fundamentalist Gebser gious exercises graduation prayer groups Herdahl hereinafter hostile educational environment hostile environment hostile work environment incidents individuals involved issue Jones legislation Lemon test ment minorities and dissenters Moreover occur OCR Guidelines organizations political proposed statute protected public forum public school religious regard reli religion religious minorities religious orientation remedy school board school districts school officials school policy school prayer school religious exercises school-sponsored Sexual Harassment significant social student-initiated prayer Supreme Court teacher tion tional Title IX Title VII unconstitutional vicarious liability victims
References to this book
The Fourth R: Conflicts Over Religion in America's Public Schools Joan DelFattore Limited preview - 2004 |