Hanalei school’s religious ties defended A California-based Christian education group has come to the defense of Hanalei Elementary School administrators who set aside part of one school day per week for off-campus religious training. The American Civil Liberties Union last
Hanalei school’s religious ties defended
A California-based Christian education group has come to the defense of Hanalei Elementary School administrators who set aside part of one school day per week for off-campus religious training.
The American Civil Liberties Union last week criticized the practice, saying the “religious education programs” were in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.
But Christian Educators Association International believes the ACLU position “is ludicrous,” said Forrest Turpen, executive director of the organization in Pasadena, Calif.
ACLU’s claim “appears to be an opportunity for grandstanding,” Turpen said. He noted that Hawai’i state law allows students in public schools to be released from school for religious training one day per week for a period of up to 60 minutes.
Turpen noted that the Hanalei Elementary religion-related dismissals each Wednesday have been upheld by the state attorney general.
But a deputy state attorney general last week said the school has been ordered to stop distributing permission slips for the early releases through teachers. The school’s principal said the forms will now be given out by churches.
Two churches – Wai’olo Hui’ia and St. Williams – participate in the school program.
Nick Beck, a Hanalei resident and a regional director for Christian Educators Association International, said the release of children from school to attend religious courses is constitutionally protected and was supported in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Zorach vs. Clauson) in 1998.
Turpen said the ACLU implied “that free speech rights of children should be denied. This appears on its face to be a dangerous affront to student freedom of speech, one of our basic American civil liberties guaranteed in the First Amendment.”
Vanessa Chong, executive director of the ACLU in Hawai’i, said peer pressure at school to participate in the religious training could be a problem.
School officials say the issue of whether children should miss some school time for the religious training is a decision for parents to make.
