Court says teacher has no right to banners referring to God

Reporting from San Diego -- A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected the claim of a San Diego-area mathematics teacher that his 1st Amendment rights were violated when the school's principal ordered him to take down classroom banners that referred to God.

A panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the principal and school board had the same authority as any employer to set limits on the speech of employees.

Bradley Johnson, a mathematics teacher in the Poway Unified School District, had displayed banners in his classrooms for two decades that he saw as celebrating the religious heritage of America, including "In God We Trust," "God Bless America," and "God Shed His Grace on Thee."

But after he transferred to a new school, a new principal in 2007 ordered the banners taken down.

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In its decision, the court ruled that Benitez confused overall restrictions placed on a government agency when it tries to regulate free speech of private citizens with the more expansive right of a governmental agency to set rules for workplace speech.

The appeals court also ordered Johnson to pay the school district's legal expenses.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0914-religious-banners-20110914,0,7964326.story


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This SHOULD be a no-brainer: Unless your job is specifically promoting your religion, then promoting your religion is NOT your job, so don't do it at your job, do it on your free time.

I attended a Christian Academy for my schooling and even there it wasn't THAT blatent and overbearing. Go be a pastor and stop trying to teach, or go do both where I grew up.

We had chapel (20 mins. of church in the gym) EVERY day, but none of my teachers' rooms looked like that!

unless we are talking about a mythology class,gods should not be mentioned in school.

Actually, I am shocked not so much by his promoting his religion as by his promoting links between religion and citizenship: 'America Under God'.