Playing instrumental music at a school graduation ceremony amounts to establishing a church??
"A federal district court has dismissed a lawsuit over a school's decision to forbid a student woodwind ensemble's performance of the instrumental piece "Ave Maria" at a high school graduation ceremony. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute had filed suit against the Everett School District, charging that the school's actions violated student Kathryn Nurre's right to freedom of speech and to be free from hostility to religion.
In dismissing the case, the U.S. District Court in Seattle ruled that although music is considered a form of speech that can be protected, the school district was within its legal rights to control the content of any speech at the graduation ceremony in order "to keep religion out of graduation as a whole." Taking issue with the court's ruling that the school's actions did not violate Nurre's First Amendment rights, Institute attorneys plan to appeal the case.
"Despite what the district court said, this case is a perfect example of the extremes to which school officials will go in their efforts to sanitize our nation's public schools of anything even remotely related to religion," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Schools cannot ban performances and restrict students' right to free expression whenever those forms of expression might have some minimal connection to religion."
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