Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter Dec. 15 to Johnson County Schools in Kentucky to encourage it to ignore a single complaint it received about biblical references in a student play based on the classic Charles Schulz television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
“Schools should not have to think twice about whether they can allow students to perform a classic Christmas production simply because it contains biblical references,” said ADF legal counsel Matt Sharp. “Are school officials going to start demanding that other classic productions, such as Shakespearean plays, be censored just because they contain religious references?”
After receiving the complaint from a family at W.R. Castle Elementary School in Wittensville, Kentucky, the district announced its intent to censor all religious references from the play and any other Christmas plays at the district’s schools.
The ADF letter explains, “Given that courts have consistently held that schools may organize and sponsor Christmas programs and performances that include religious songs and study the historical origins of Christmas, there is no basis for the district’s decision to censor the religious aspects of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’”
ADF senior counsel Jeremy Tedesco said, “Because the district completely misunderstands the First Amendment, all it is accomplishing here is upsetting and disappointing a lot of children and other community members who love this completely acceptable play.”
(ADF)
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