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Home My WebLink AboutU-4350 Religious Expression and ActivitiesUNIVERSAL POLICY U-4350 Page 1 of 4 Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION AND ACTIVITIES In keeping with the United States and Idaho Constitutions and judicial decisions, the Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 (the “District”) shall not promote, support, or endorse any particular religion or religious activity or the absence of religion. That being said, the District shall allow students to pray or engage in religious expression during instructional and non-instructional time, provided students follow the same rules that govern other, nonreligious private expressive activities. Furthermore, the District shall allow employees to pray or engage in religious expression so long as they are not acting in their official capacity or compelling, coercing, persuading, or encouraging students to participate in their prayers or other religious activities. The purpose of this policy is to provide direction to students and employees about the application of these principles to religious expression and activity at school as well as District sponsored activities and events except for meetings of the Board of Trustees. 1. Student Prayer and Discussion Religious Expression and Observance a. Students may pray individually or in groups and as well as discuss their religious views with other students, as long as they are not disruptive or coercive. b. The right to engage in voluntary prayer or other religious expression or observance does not include the right to have a captive audience listen, to harass other students, or to coerce students or others to participate in their prayer or other religious activity. c. Students may express their individual religious beliefs in their coursework, which includes, but is not limited to, reports, tests, homework, and projects. i.Such religious expression should neither be favored nor penalized and the coursework shall be evaluated based on ordinary academic standards, including substance, relevance, appearance, composition, and grammar. d. Students may organize clubs to discuss or promote religion, subject to the same constitutionally acceptable restrictions that the District imposes on other student- organized clubs. 2. Employee Prayer and Religious Expression and Observance a. When acting in their capacity as representatives of the District, employees may not encourage, discourage, persuade, dissuade, sponsor, participate in, or discriminate against a religious activity or an activity because of its religious content. They must remain officially neutral toward religious expression. b. District employees may engage in private prayer or other religious expression or observance during the workday when they are not acting in their official capacities and where their practice does not result in any coercion of students. UNIVERSAL POLICY U-4350 Page 2 of 4 Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 i.For example, a District employee may engage in private religious expression or brief personal religious observance before school or during breaks, subject to the same neutral rules that the District applies to other private employee conduct. 3. Guidelines for Teaching About Religion a. Employees, while acting in their capacities as District representatives and engaging in religious practices, expression, or observance, must take care to “navigate the narrow channel between impairing intellectual inquiry and propagating a religious creed.” b. Instructional employees, as defined in this policy, may teach students about religion in history, art, music, literature, and other subjects in which religion has had a significant influence. However, in doing so, employees may not provide religious instruction or advocate for or against any religious doctrine or practice. c. Instructional employees shall follow Board Policy 2340 Controversial Issues and Academic Freedom when teaching issues related to religion that would reasonably be considered to be controversial. d. Instructional employees may also teach objectively about religious holidays including religious symbols, music, art, literature, and drama that accompany the holidays. i.While instruction may include information about religious holidays, including their historical and religious aspects, and the secular aspects of holidays may be celebrated, employees shall not treat holidays as religious events or promote or discourage their observance. 4. Official School Events, Ceremonies, and Activities a. School Programs i.School programs, performances, and celebrations must serve an educational purpose and cannot promote, encourage, discourage, persuade, dissuade, or discriminate against a religion or religious activity. ii.The inclusion of religious music, symbols, art, or writings may be included in such events as long as the religious content has an historical or educational purpose that aligns with the objectives of the curriculum approved by the Board of Trustees.. b. Graduation Ceremonies i.Graduation is an important event for students and their families. In order to assure the appropriateness and dignity of the occasion, the District sponsors and pays for graduation ceremonies and retains ultimate control over their structure and content. UNIVERSAL POLICY U-4350 Page 3 of 4 Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 ii.District officials may not invite or permit members of the clergy to give prayers at graduation. iii.District officials may not organize or agree to requests for prayer by other persons at graduation, including requests from students. iv.The District may not prefer the beliefs of some students over the beliefs of others, coerce dissenters or nonbelievers, or communicate any endorsement of religion. c. Baccalaureate Ceremonies i.Students and their families may organize baccalaureate services, at which attendance must be entirely voluntary. Organizers of baccalaureate services may rent and have access to school facilities pursuant to Board Policies 3220 Student Use of Buildings: Equal Access and 9610 District Facility Rental, ii.Requests for use of school facilities for baccalaureate ceremonies may not receive preferential treatment over other requests for facility use. iii.The District may not be identified as sponsoring or endorsing baccalaureate services. District funds, including paid staff time, may not be used directly or indirectly to support or subsidize any religious services. d. Assemblies, Extracurricular and Athletic Events i.District employees, when acting within the scope of their job responsibilities, shall not organize or approve students requests for public prayers at school- sponsored assemblies and extracurricular or athletic events. 5. Distribution of Religious Literature a. Students may distribute religious literature to their classmates, subject to the same constitutionally acceptable restrictions that the District imposes on the distribution of other non-school literature. b. Outsiders Employees and third-parties may not distribute religious or other literature to students on school property, consistent with and pursuant to policy #4285 Use of School Property for Posting Materials and District Electronic Equipment or Students for Distributing Information. 6. Definitions a. Instructional employees: District employees who are specifically responsible for instruction of students including certified teachers, as well as paraprofessionals and substitutes acting under the direction of a certified teacher. b. Workday. The time when District employees are assigned to attend to their assigned responsibilities including but not limited to any time when employees are responsible to supervise students at after-school activities and events. UNIVERSAL POLICY U-4350 Page 4 of 4 Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 Adopted: 03-09-2005 Reviewed: 01-17-2018 Revised: 03-12- 2025 Cross Reference: School Calendar #2200