Bradley Johnson, California Math Teacher, Has No Constitutional Right To Use Banners Referring To God, Judge Rules

A federal appeals court in California ruled Tuesday that a San Diego-area math teacher does not have the constitutional right to display banners referring to God in his classroom.

Bradley Johnson, a math teacher for Poway Unified School District, is 30 years into his career and had banners he believed celebrated "the religious heritage of America," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Johnson had displayed the approximately 7-foot-by-2-foot banners -- one of which had the four phrases "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," "God Bless America," and "God Shed His Grace On Thee" -- in his classroom at another school for nearly 20 years. But when he came to Westview High School, Principal Dawn Kastner said the banners were "a promotion of a particular viewpoint" and ordered Johnson to take them down, the LA Times reports.

The second banner stated, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their CREATOR," according to the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that filed the lawsuit on Johnson's behalf. Tuesday's ruling overturns a February decision by California Federal District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez that said the school districted violated Johnson's constitutional rights.

Johnson argued that school officials discriminated against Christians by forcing him to remove the banners, noting that other teachers were allowed to hang Tibetan prayer flags or lyrics to a John Lennon song that references heaven, hell and religion, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The appeals court said Tuesday that Johnson's role as a state-employed math teacher was to do as his job title conveys, not to "use his public position as a pulpit from which to preach his own views on the role of God in our nation's history to the captive students in his mathematics classroom," Christian Science Monitor reports.

Judge Richard Tallman of the appeals court wrote in the ruling that while Johnson can make his views known on the nation's religious history beyond the schoolyard, it is not appropriate for him to do so in the classroom.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this entry incorrectly stated that Johnson is 30 years old.

Comments

[4QDC]

06:53 PM on 11/02/2011

There's a real simple, elegant, cost-effective solution to stuff like this: END PUBLIC-FUNDED EDUCATION.

Private schools are MUCH better at it. Public schools merely serve the unions and Progressive political interests. END THEM. We will all be better off -- especially the students who must suffer under such filled-with-tripe ballyhoo.

[Mike Sowell]

12:33 AM on 10/01/2011

This article just makes me want to puke.

[MAJK]

01:33 AM on 09/30/2011

Thank God.

[dbrett480]

10:30 PM on 09/21/2011

Yes those historical references are so offensive. Heaven forbid high school students become exposed to them.

[rcballi46]

10:04 AM on 09/21/2011

You misunderstood the intent of my reply. I was not calling the respondent a 'Communist', nor do I believe, as you assert, that anyone that disagrees with me is a 'Communist'. I merely stated that the philosophy of 'keep your religion out of the public square' is primarily excersised by Communist/atheistic systems of government. I do, however, appreciate your response and wish you well.

[El Justiciero]

12:17 PM on 09/19/2011

He should go to a PRIVATE school. I would objected to such preachy signage in the classroom as well.

[Greg Gorelick]

03:24 AM on 09/19/2011

No prayer in school period.

Why?

Because education and that there book-learnin' smarts has no room for outdated, superstitious fairy tales. Unless the bible (and all the other identical sun-worship based religions) appear in history and/or the fiction section, then there's no room for religious agendas.

We want our kids embracing science and the pursuit of KNOWLEDGE, to always be searching for something new and to advance humanity through medicine and technology.

Just the thought of religion mixing with education is like the thought of ammonia mixing with bleach.

[Kibashi Siyoto]

10:20 PM on 09/18/2011

Matthew 6:6-

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

In other words, don't make big signs. Keep it to yourself.

[Greg Gorelick]

03:20 AM on 09/19/2011

selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).

[Conuly]

10:47 AM on 09/19/2011

Oh, but then they're going to go "The OT doesn't count!" except, of course, when they WANT it to count.

[FrontRunner]

07:03 PM on 09/17/2011

If he had only one banner and it said, "Allah akhbar" there wouldn't be any problem at all.

[Gwenhevare]

07:06 PM on 09/17/2011

He's a math teacher not a history or humanities teacher. His posters should be applicable to the curriculum he teaches.

[Angel1999]

09:39 AM on 09/19/2011

This Christian persecution complex is so pointless.

[bbriani3842]

06:47 AM on 09/17/2011

"Whatever else may be wrong with our world, it remains a fact that some of the most terrifying instances of human conflict and stupidity would be unthinkable without religion."

-- Sam Harris

[FanciullaDiMiele]

06:19 PM on 09/17/2011

Great quote!! And sadly..............so true.............so true.

[FanciullaDiMiele]

06:21 PM on 09/17/2011

You have been commenting for a fair amount of time. Could you please tell me what
"FF" or "F and F" mean? I see it enough to wonder what it means. Thank you.

[Greg Gorelick]

03:53 AM on 09/19/2011

Not sure, but I've heard anything from "First and Foremost" to "Forgive and Forget". I googled and couldn't find anything definitive.

[Angel1999]

09:48 AM on 09/19/2011

It's generally used to indicate on here that you have fanned someone and favorited their comment.

[edufaison]

03:32 AM on 09/17/2011

Cognitive stimulation, mental discipline, and meaningful curiosities help develop youthful minds. Such academic endeavors provide channels for progressive growth that affect student attitude encouraging educational advantage. This advantage, in turn increases personal dignity and community productivity. Thus, grasping the significance of educational attitude supports learning advantage in early youth development. Consider the following educational development located:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Bethchem1121?feature=mhsn

[bessielil]

03:36 PM on 09/16/2011

I think it was the late Daniel Schorr who noted that there would always be prayer in schools, as long as there were math tests.

Other than private hopes and wishes for success, unless a course in school should, by definition, deal with religions and religious history, then NONE of this sloganeering belongs in the classroom.

[crabbyoldart]

11:35 PM on 09/20/2011

what if it is just a part of history of our country? math, in its own right, is history, theorums and formulas developed scientific processes which came throughout time by those in the past...and so, it is all history, it is all science, it is all literature, and slogans have been around throughout the centuries...so we have them everywhere - on t-shirts, automobile bumpers, school lockers...each one promotes thought - and dissidence, which Frederick Douglass said was necessary for democracy....it's just a world - which words do we want to ban, and from that, what communication and differences in thought will cease to exist as well...too much argument about faith and religion...people will draw their lines in the sand, but math, history, literature, philosophy and science will continue on. Seems like a lot of stink about nothing.

[nazztea]

02:45 PM on 09/16/2011

For those who are interested, these are two of the opposing counsels:

SAN DIEGO ACLU FILES AMICUS IN TEACHER'S "GOD BANNERS" CASE
Finding a Balance Between the Free Speech and Establishment Clauses
http://www.aclusandiego.org/news_item.php?article_id=001053

The National Legal Foundation (They lost, so they don't have a corresponding article.)
http://www.nlf.net/

[MarsAmbassador]

01:21 PM on 09/16/2011

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses."
- John Adams

"Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offense against God..."
- James Madison

"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.”
- John Adams (Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli - 1793)

[US American]

02:06 PM on 09/16/2011

That is the religious heritage I celebrate.

F&F

[r henry]

09:41 AM on 09/16/2011

I would think that, if there are indeed other teachers with Tibetan prayer flags, etc., those ought to be removed, too. I used to have a teacher who was Pentecostal and he would stand in front of the class and sing church hymns. I was young and this was 20 years ago so I never thought too much of it, though I hated the songs. I'm sure that today that wouldn't fly.

[nazztea]

11:06 AM on 09/16/2011

Well, think again; the prayer flags had nothing to do with Tibetan prayers; "...other teachers' displays were not intended to promote religion - the Tibetan prayer flags, for example, were posted for a science class discussion of fossils found near Mt. Everest and were never identified by any student as religious."

One of the Links you failed to click on:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/13/BAVN1L458A.DTL#

If you can find the time, read the entire court opinion:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/09/13/10-55445.pdf

[r henry]

12:01 PM on 09/16/2011

I stand corrected.

[r henry]

01:00 PM on 09/16/2011

Ah! Did you just award me a "smart badge" for admitting I was wrong!?!?
lol.

[Kari Popovic]

11:48 AM on 09/16/2011

Doesn't that depend, though? If you're a history, geography, or social studies teacher, Tibetan prayer flags are appropriate for your classroom. So are the above-mentioned banners, all together in the SAME classroom. You can't discuss the events that have gotten mankind to this point without discussing the various religions that got them into the soup to begin with.

But NONE of these belong in math class.

[r henry]

12:01 PM on 09/16/2011

Sure it would depend on the class.