A teacher has been barred by a school district in Virginia from including a Bible verse in her email signature, although the school generally allows teachers to personalise their signature blocks with quotations, pictures, or phrases that are intended to express their personal views on a variety of subjects.
The teacher, who is employed by the Loudon County Public Schools (LCPS), was prevented from having John 3:16 remain in her email signature.
The matter has garnered the attention of the Liberty Counsel, which, in a statement on Monday, asserted that the First Amendment and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions showed that the teacher should be allowed to include the verse in her signature.
Chairman of Liberty Counsel Mat Staver argued that the school cannot discriminate against a teacher who wants to use a Bible verse in her signature when other teachers are including nonreligious quotes.
On March 23, Richard L. Mast and Hugh C. Phillips of Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the Acting Superintendent of the school, Daniel Smith, demanding that the teacher be allowed “to restore the Bible verse to her email signature block.”
“The directive from LCPS to [the teacher] to remove an expression of her personal faith from her email signature block, based solely on its perceived religious nature, constitutes religious discrimination,” they wrote.
Mast and Phillips asked the Loudoun County Public Schools to update its policies and practises to conform to current Supreme Court precedent and not discriminate against teachers based on their religious viewpoint.
According to the Christian Post, Smith stated that the teacher is entitled to include religious expressions in any private emails she sends, provided they otherwise comply with LCPS policies and applicable law. He said the school is constrained by applicable law and policy to prohibit her from doing so in emails she sends in her public role as an LCPS employee.
“[The teacher] may make occasional personal use of School Division technology, including her email address, for non-work purposes when this use does not consume a significant amount of LCPS resources, does not interfere with her job performance or other School Division responsibilities, and is otherwise in compliance with LCPS policies,” wrote Smith.
“It is my understanding, however, that [she] is not including religious quotes in only her private correspondence but also uses these religious quotes in her communications to students and their parents in her capacity as an LCPS employee. These communications are not private expression, but rather constitute school-sponsored speech bearing the ostensible endorsement of the School Division,” he said.
