Photo by Ali Kokab on Unsplash
First graders at a Hawaii public school will no longer begin their school day with their teacher’s Christian prayer — thanks to an intervention from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Every morning at Kapa Elementary School, according to a concerned parent who contacted FFRF, a first-grade teacher gathered her young students in a circle. She instructed them to alternate between boys and girls, hold hands, close their eyes and remain silent while she led them in prayer. The prayers ended with “amen,” which students were expected to repeat. When children began talking during prayer, the teacher reportedly quieted them by telling them something akin to, “Shh, we are talking to God right now.”
Even a math test became an occasion for prayer. Before students took a diagnostic test, the teacher reportedly prayed: “Heavenly Father, please make sure these students do well on their test.”
Additionally, the teacher pushed her religion on students beyond leading them in daily prayers. For instance, during a journaling activity following Hurricane Lowell, the teacher suggested that students should “thank God” for “saving them” from the hurricane in their journal entries and wrote the instructions on the classroom’s board. The parent who complained to FFRF said their child felt they had to thank God in their journal entry or else the teacher would have given them a lower grade.
“Students are a captive audience who are not free to simply disobey their teacher’s commands without threat of punishment or retaliation,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district.
By permitting the teacher in question to lead her first-grade class in Christian prayer every morning, Kapa Elementary School was undeniably crossing the constitutional line. Elementary school students, especially as young as first graders, are not free to simply disobey their teacher’s commands without the threat of punishment or retaliation. The “suggestion” that students should “thank God” in their journals is likewise coercive, as students are highly likely to take that “suggestion” as a command. It is unrealistic to expect students to recognize that their teacher is violating their constitutional rights or dissent under threat of punishment.
After receiving FFRF’s complaint, school officials took action.
Superintendent Leila Kobayashi informed FFRF via email that Kapaʻa Elementary Principal Gonsalves conducted a “thorough investigation.” School officials met with the teacher to address the allegations and ensure that her conduct complied with Hawaii Department of Education policies and constitutional requirements.
The superintendent confirmed that the principal took “appropriate administrative steps to ensure that classroom instruction remains neutral, compliant with the law, and supportive of all students.”
This is a victory for every student who enters that classroom.
“These children should be able to walk into their first-grade classroom knowing that their teacher will teach them, not preach to them,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “No child should have to wonder whether they are supposed to believe in God to please their teacher, fit in with their classmates or earn a good grade. We’re pleased that school officials acted to ensure that all students, regardless of their family’s beliefs, are equally welcome in this public school.”
FFRF particularly commends the parent who brought the practice to its attention despite expressing concerns about possible retaliation. The parent’s speaking up protected far more than one child; it helped ensure that every student in the classroom, as well as future students, can attend school without being subjected to religious exercises by their teacher.
Some of those children may be Christian. Others may belong to different religions. Some may be growing up without religion at all. At their age, many are only beginning to understand what those distinctions mean. None of them should have to navigate those differences at the direction of their public school teacher.
Public schools serve children from every religious and nonreligious background. Their constitutional neutrality allows those children to learn together as equals. Thanks to one parent who spoke up and school officials who responded, that principle has been restored in this Hawaii first grade classroom.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 40,000 members across the country, including members in Hawaii, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
