Is teacher’s suspension justifiable?

By Nathan Tucker

Students, parents and teachers at Guthrie Center are wrestling with difficult questions after a shop teacher was suspended in March for telling a student he couldn't build a Wiccan altar in class.

Dale Halferty, who has taught high school industrial arts there for three years, was placed on an unpaid five-day suspension for his actions.

That suspension, however, has become indefinite as Halferty, citing his Christian beliefs, refuses to change his position. Halferty argues that the school district is violating his right to freely exercise his religious faith when it forces him to act against his conscience.

Apparently, a number of students agree with him. Nearly 70 signed a petition stating that they did not want witchcraft practiced at the school.

Halferty, however, overstates his crises of conscience. He is not being asked to choose between teaching something that conflicts with his moral beliefs and his job. Christian teachers, such as biology teachers who have to teach evolution or history teachers who can't talk about the role of Christianity in our country's founding, have a much more difficult test of faith.

Halferty simply opened up his classroom for students to build projects that they wanted to do. His case is no different from a speech teacher who would let students pick topics for a class speech but, when one of them started discussing famous people who shared his religious beliefs, the teacher stops him because he finds the religion offensive.

Just as the speech teacher isn't teaching anything about the student's religion, so Halferty isn't teaching anything about Wicca by allowing the student to build an altar.

Second, as a teacher, your freedom of religion ends when it causes you to single out and condemn a student for his religious beliefs.

While Wicca, a religion which worships nature and practices magic, may be offensive, the student cannot be discriminated against based on his religion, no matter how many students, or teachers, or parents may find the religion offensive.

The majority should keep in mind that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Pretending for the moment that such religious discrimination is constitutional, the time may come when the majority is Muslim or Hindu or Wiccan. Would we be so eager to endorse religious discrimination then, after we have lost our majority?

Finally, while it is unlawful for a teacher to pick a religion he disfavors to prohibit it in the classroom, it is completely permissible for him to tell students that they cannot build any religious objects in shop class or discuss any religious subjects in a speech. This total ban appears to be what Halferty has actually done.

According to Halferty, he previously told another student that he couldn't build a cross in the shop class, citing the separation of church and state. It is perfectly constitutional for teachers to impose such a ban.

If Halferty is in fact banning all religious projects in his class, the suspension should be lifted and he should be allowed back in the classroom, with an apology and back pay by the district.

Nathan Tucker is a Davenport attorney and author. Comments:

nathanwtucker@gmail.com