Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Virginia

violation of rights?

There is going to be a festival held at a PUBLIC high school in december. This festival is the biggest event of the year at the public school where academic and athletic achievements are acknowledged. To go along with the acknowledgments, the school band has been asked to play seasonal Christmas music such as ''silent night'', ''little drummer boy'' and a few other religiously themed christmas songs. Also during the festival, a teacher has been asked to address the student body and is going to talk about giving thanks to the lord. Although the comments aren't directed towards one denomination, the general theme of the speech was directed towards the Judeo-Christian tradition. If a few students were upset by the religious content of the festival, and the school said that they would definitely continue using the religious content, would the school be violating any constitutional rights assuming that attendence was required by every student? are there any supreme court cases that this kind of festival would fall under?


Asked on 3/04/08, 5:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: violation of rights?

Sure, there are probably a few SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States)cases decided in the last few years which may bear some relevance to this particular situation, but I for one would seriously doubt that the proposed program agenda as you've described it would be likely to spark enough wounded feelings among the attendees such that the legal research that would likely be required to assess this matter more definitively from a Constitutional perspective, and, perhaps, to formally oppose the program in its proposed format, would probably not be worth the effort.

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Answered on 3/04/08, 10:30 pm


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