Re: Student reprimanded for religious absences

[Steven Jamar]

I haven't seen anyone say that students ought not be accommodated for some limited number of religious holy days.  So I think there is general agreement on that part of it.  And I think that getting school boards to recognize holidays as excused absences makes a lot of sense.  It seems that any organized religion would be able to notify the school in advance of the school year to inform the school of when its adherents would be required or strongly expected to attend and miss school.  Then it would be a matter of the family notifying the school ahead of time that their children will miss those days.  There are lots of ways to work this out as a practical matter without resort to making an attendance policy a constitutional case.  Of course no matter how clever and careful and flexible the system, there will be abuses and there will be borderline cases and individualized religions and understandings of requirements.  One cannot really do a Christian calendar or a Jewish one or Muslim and be sure to get it right for every sect.  Or any particular sect.

I remain unconvinced that the warning that you should not miss more school and that if you do, you might be expelled, constitutes a violation of free exercise rights under a strict scrutiny regime or under Smith.  This one would turn on facts that we don't know -- but on what I know, I don't think I would enjoin the school district from enforcing its rule ahead of time.

Steve

-- 
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                               vox:  202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law                     fax:  202-806-8567
2900 Van Ness Street NW                   mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Washington, DC  20008   http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar/

"Love the pitcher less and the water more."

Sufi Saying
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